ALERT! All Brits should rise up against the sovereignty deal, say leading UK Chagossian group
TODAY as Parliament debates the Chagos Islands sovereignty deal, Indigenous Chagossian People (ICP) is campaigning for Chagossians and also “the British people to make noise.”
An ICP spokesman told THE CHAGOS FILES exclusively that the group is encouraging British voters who oppose the deal to tell their MPs “we have a problem as well with this deal.”
The Government’s Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill proposes handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and the UK leasing the military base on the island Diego Garcia. This follows the 2019 International Court of Justice advisory ruling which the UK Government says it is abiding by.
The agreement to hand over sovereignty of the islands to a foreign state was made by Executive Royal Prerogative power. The bill is now waiting for MPs to vote for or against it after over a year of parliamentary debate and amendments. This sounds democratic but many Chagossian people feel they have been cut out from the negotiation process without any meaningful democratic consultation, without a vote such as a Referendum, and with no mention of a right to re-settle or right to self-determination.
The treaty bill looks set to be voted for by Labour MPs. They have a parliamentary majority – and together with the possible support of the Liberal Democrats – the islands will be handed to Mauritius even though the policy was not in the Labour Party’s General Election Manifesto, many British Chagossians, some Mauritian Chagossians and others oppose the deal and, President Trump who has supported the deal now says it is an act of “stupidity.”
Indigenous Chagossian People (ICP) is a new UK- based group with members from Britain, France, Switzerland, Seychelles and Mauritius,
To date ICP has focused on contacting the Liberal Democrat Party and Chagossians with a campaign video. The Liberal Democrat peers abstained during the last House of Lords Amendment vote on 12 January to vote for/against a “regret” at the Government’s bill.
“Liberal Democrats are under a lot of pressure from Prime Minister Starmer to cave in,” the ICP spokesman explains. “They are already wavering. If the Liberal Democrats decide to stop opposing the Bill then it will become law. After that Mauritius will take control of Chagos.”
Today Indigenous Chagossian People (ICP) are broadening their campaign to all parliamentarians and the British people. The group say they have sent 650 to MPs and 822 letters to Lords and Baronesses asking them to oppose the treaty bill which they say ignores Chagossians’ democratic rights.
ICP campaigners are asking everyone in Britain - and elsewhere - who oppose the sovereignty deal to write to their MP [see the ICP letter template below].
THE CHAGOS FILES team/ 20.1.26================================================================
TEMPLATE LETTER FROM ICP
Dear …………………………………MP or Lord/Baroness…………….……………..,
re: reading of the Chagos Islands sovereignty Bill
January 20th, 2026
1. I write to you as a British Citizen to thank you and the Liberal Democrats for your long‑standing commitment to international law, human rights, and meaningful parliamentary scrutiny of the United Kingdom’s policy on the Chagos Archipelago. I am sure that your party’s insistence that nothing should happen to the Chagossian people without their full democratic input, and your support for proposals to embed a Chagossian self‑determination referendum in the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill, have been deeply valued across their community. The January 20th 2026 reading of the Diego Garcia Bill is, without overstatement, theirlast hope to protect their rights and their enduring connection to the homeland which they were torn from. The Bill can only be blocked with the assistance of a large number of Liberal Democrat Peers.
2. As the Bill approaches its potential adoption, I respectfully urge you to oppose the treaty in its current form by gathering the maximum number of Liberal Democrat Peers to vote against the Diego Garcia Bill. I would be eternally grateful if the Liberal Democrats could use their position of moral and political authority to press for a clear, binding mechanism for Chagossian self‑determination, including a referendum of the Chagossian people on the future of the Archipelago.
3. For their community, this moment represents the only realistic chance to bring to an end the severe and continuing human rights violations they have suffered, including the crime against humanity constituted by theiroriginal forced deportation and its enduring consequences.
4. Since the Bill was introduced, a significant legal development has occurred. In December 2025, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), acting under its Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure, called on the United Kingdom and Mauritius to suspend ratification of their agreement on the Chagos Archipelago. CERD found that the agreement, as it stands, does not adequately safeguard their rights as a people, including their right to meaningful participation in decisions affecting them, their right of return (including to Diego Garcia), and their right to self‑determination. These concerns are not abstract. A recent consultative study commissioned by the House of Lords found that 70.5% of Chagossians consulted do not trust the Government of Mauritius to fulfil its promises regarding resettlement. Given the very small size of the global Chagossian population, this level of participation constitutes an exceptionally strong and credible signal. It also suggests that genuine opposition within the community may, in reality, be even greater.
5. These findings reinforce, rather than contradict, the 2019 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice and the subsequent General Assembly resolution. They make clear that decolonisation cannot be reduced to an inter‑State bargain but must centre on the rights, voices, and consent of the people whose homeland is at stake, including through free, genuine, and informed choices about their political future. A Chagossian referendum on self‑determination and return is precisely the kind of democratic instrument that can give effect to this principle.
6. The Liberal Democrats have already highlighted that the treaty and Bill, in their present form, fail to rectify the historic injustice suffered by Chagossians and risk creating new injustices by denying an enforceable right of return, tying access to the islands to Mauritian discretion, and sidelining Chagossian consent. Proceeding on this basis, without addressing CERD’s concerns and without providing for a referendum, would place the United Kingdom in tension with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and undermine its credibility when speaking for democracy and self‑determination elsewhere.
7. At this decisive juncture, continued Liberal Democrat opposition to the treaty in its current form, and sustained advocacy for a Chagossian self‑determination referendum and a genuine right of return, are vital. Ensuring that Parliament fully considers the human‑rights implications identified by CERD, and that no final settlement proceeds without the free and democratic endorsement of the Chagossian people themselves, would embody the values of justice and rule of law that your party has consistently championed.
8. I thank you once again for your attention to this matter and for the seriousness with which Liberal Democrat parliamentarians have engaged with the concerns of Chagossian and British communities. I remain hopeful that your party will continue to play a leading, constructive, and principled role.
Yours sincerely,
…………………………………………………………………….
