Labour‘s Chagos farce deepened on Wednesday as the UK government threatened to throw islanders returning to Chagos in jail if they didn’t leave their homeland.
A small group of Chagossians landed on a remote Chagos atoll on Monday to establish a permanent settlement there before Mauritius takes ownership of the archipelago.
But Labour has now served the Chagossians with an eviction notice demanding they leave their ancestral home, echoing orders given by the then-Labour government for them to clear out more than 50 years ago.
This comes as the US on Tuesday formally gave its backing for Keir Starmer‘s deal – branded a ‘betrayal’ to the British people.
First Minister Misley Mandarin, leading the four-strong party of Chagossians, received a letter from the British Indian Ocean Territory delivered by a British patrol boat, which demanded the exiles depart the island or face a prison sentence of up to three years or a maximum fine of £3,000.
Mr Mandarin said: ‘This is really appalling, we have been exiled from our homeland for more than half a century.
First Minister Misley Mandarin received a letter from the British Indian Ocean Territory delivered by a British patrol boat demanding the group leave the atoll
The letter demanded the exiles depart the island or face a prison sentence of up to three years or a maximum fine of £3,000
The Daily Mail revealed on Tuesday that Keir Starmer’s close friend Philippe Sands shared the proceeds of an £8m pot for his work cementing the deal handing the Chagos islands to Mauritius
‘Now, having this vessel serve me this order that if I do not leave the island I might have to be in prison for three years or pay a hefty fine.
‘I am very angry about it.’
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said that Labour is ‘doing Mauritius’s bidding’ by ‘threatening Chagossians with prisons sentences or crippling fines for landing on the Islands’.
Questions have now been raised over whether Labour is breaking the law in trying to evict the Chagossians.
This comes as the Daily Mail revealed that Keir Starmer’s close friend Philippe Sands shared the proceeds of an £8m pot for his work cementing the deal.
Conservative peer Lord Kempsell suggested that in trying to remove the Chagossians there are ‘arguable grounds’ Labour is breaking Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Article 8 guarantees a right to a private life, family life and home.
Crossbench peer and Human Rights committee chair Lord Alton told the Daily Mail a UN committee has already called for the deal to be suspended because it ‘fails to guarantee a right of return by the Chagossians‘.
‘On human rights grounds alone we should be listening to the Chagossians – ensuring their right to return to their ancestral lands, insisting on the principle of self-determination.
‘They have been treated despicably.’
Nigel Farage added Reform is now exploring ‘every possible legal avenue’ to support the Chagossians.
The Reform leader was among many on Wednesday criticising Labour for evicting British passport holders from British territory while giving small-boat asylum seekers leave to remain in the UK.
Nigel Farage said Reform is exploring ‘every possible legal avenue’ to support the Chagossians
‘Arrive in Dover illegally by small boat and you’re allowed to stay indefinitely, but if you’re a British passport holder who travels by boat to a British territory, you could be threatened with three years in prison. What a sick country!’ he said.
Former Conservative MP Adam Holloway, who has now joined Reform, accompanied the group to the atoll.
He told GB News: ‘I haven’t been served papers as I was in the jungle looking for wells but this is an extraordinary situation.’
Speaking before receiving the notice, Mr Misley warned that ‘time is critical’ for his people to reclaim their homeland.
But the US on Monday officially gave its support to Labour’s deal to surrender the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite President Trump previously calling it an ‘act of great stupidity’.
In a seeming attempt to hurry Labour into completing the deal, the US said it would hold bilateral talks with Mauritius next week to discuss security arrangements on the islands.
Under the terms of Labour’s deal, Britain would pay billions of pounds to lease back a joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.
Up to 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly removed from the archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s, and resettled mainly in Mauritius and Britain.
There are currently no other Chagossians living anywhere on the Chagos archipelago, with Diego Garcia populated by military personnel and officials only.
