NEWS
NEWS
News: 4 November; updated 12 November 2025
Just when you thought the CHAGOS BILL* going through the Houses of Parliament was a done deal, it isn’t!
The Government has suddenly stopped the committal motion (which advances its legislative journey) so there is no vote this month on the bill in the House of Lords.
Instead the UK Government is asking the House of Lords’ International Relations and Defence Committee to report on Chagossian views on the treaty. Some fear this will be a tick-box exercise.
So what should democrats support next? A democratic move such as re-writing the treaty to include the Chagossians’ democratic right to return? Tearing up the treaty and holding a referendum? Delaying the treaty to allow for more public and parliamentary debate and consultation with Chagossian people?
WATCH THIS SPACE!
by Tessa Clarke, Editor
*the proposed legislation confirming the Government’s already signed 2025 treaty handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius
Rumours are swirling in London and Port Louis after Prime Minister of Mauritius Navin Ramgoolam is said to have quietly visited Britain – the latest in a string of behind-closed-doors meetings about the future of the Chagos Islands.
- by Alexia Psalti, THE CHAGOS FILES
News: 17 October 2025
EXCLUSIVE
–
EXCLUSIVE –
report RE-EVICTED
the moral scandal of the homeless Chagossians in Britain
coming soon
Meet Emma’s* Chagossian family. Her relatives originated from the Chagos Islands and Britain deported them by force. In mainland Britain the family was evicted from council-provided accommodation.
THE CHAGOS FILES
we investigate
Reporter Tessa Clarke and the team investigate stories and ideas. We produce reports, books and documentaries. For you.
THE CHAGOS FILES is our current journalism project investigating the UK Government’s undemocratic Chagos Islands sovereignty deal.
Sixty years ago the British government removed several thousand people living on The Chagos Islands, a British overseas territory in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Chagossian people and their families were taken against their will mainly to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK.
Since then those born on the islands and their descendants have been denied the democratic right to return to their homeland and to self-determination.
At a time of geopolitical realignment and changing ideology that increasingly ignores national boundaries and people's claims of sovereignty, THE CHAGOS FILES reveals the new ways governments frustrate the democratic demands of the Chagossian people.
Help us investigate how actions by Governments and international courts on this issue undermine democracy for us all.
DEBATE:
AT THE BATTLE OF IDEAS FESTIVAL
CHAGOS: IS THERE A DEMOCRATIC SOLUTION?
SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER, 15:45—17:00, COUNCIL ROOM, CHURCH HOUSE, WESTMINSTER, LONDON
Speakers: Tessa Clarke, Bernadette Dugasse, James Heartfield, Lord Ross Kempsell | Chair: Fraser Myers
Government cancels leading Chagossian campaigner
EXCLUSIVE: 8 September 2025; updated 10 September 2025
report by Tessa Clarke, Editor
Opinion: 18 June 2025
With rising political activity in parliament and criticism of the Chagos Islands treaty by committees in the UN, how can the democratic rights for all Chagossians finally be centre stage? - by Tessa Clarke and Alexia Psalti, THE CHAGOS FILES
News: 27 May 2025
EXCLUSIVE
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EXCLUSIVE –
An international group of Chagossian organisations claim the UK’s Chagos Islands treaty negotiating process is racist
– by Tessa Clarke
Chagos Islanders are unlikely to be able to return to their homeland despite Britain’s landmark agreement to transfer sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius, The Times reports.
News: 22 April 2025