Chagossians Fight Back
How are Chagossian groups opposed to the sovereignty deal fighting back?
Tessa Clarke, Editor, reports
In the House of Lords the Government has had to withdraw the Chagos Islands sovereignty bill. Temporarily. This is to allow time to consider and negotiate with the US how the bill affects the UK-US’s 1966 treaty which agrees terms for the US military base on Diego Garcia, one of the islands. No.10 insists that the deal will still go ahead.
As world leaders discuss the fate of the islands, many Chagossians are finding new ways to fight back against the Government’s £35bn* sovereignty deal with Mauritius making new political alliances and coming up with inventive democratic ideas.
Deported from the small British Chagos Islands 60 years ago, Chagossians who feel ignored by successive British Governments, President Trump, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Mauritius, are not giving up their demand for self-determination.
Last week campaigners won’t be surprised to have heard Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper dismiss Government opposition to the deal. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 22 January last week the Foreign Secretary dismissed President Trump’s scathing comments about it when he called the deal an act of “great stupidity.” She says the President supported the deal in Spring 2025 and now is trying to put pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer because of the United States’ desire to have sovereignty of Greenland to enhance Western security in the Arctic.
The Foreign Secretary had little time for opposition in Britain too including from the Conservatives and Reform political parties saying, “Other people want to just sort of make claims and statements and tweets and headlines and all of those sorts of things. Our focus is on our long-term national security.” No mention was made by Cooper about Chagossians’ call for their democratic rights, despite prompts from Today’s presenter.
Chagossians campaigning for the right to resettle on the islands and self-determination and who oppose the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago going to Mauritius are having none of it.
All opposition Chagossian groups in the UK support Diego Garcia, the island with the UK-US military base on it, continuing its role in the interests of British national security. Instead they would like to resettle on the outer islands in the Chagos Atolls. Their call for self-determination is not a call to make Diego Garcia in to a tourist destination.
Now, together with other Chagossian opposition campaigners living in France, Switzerland, Mauritius and the Seychelles, Chagossian leaders are increasing their visibility on the world stage.
* BIOT Citizen is a British and Mauritius-based group, campaigning for Britain to retain the Chagos Islands and for the return of the Chagossians’ to their “homeland.” They have worked closely with Friends of the British Overseas Territories (FOTBOT) and the Great British PAC and received support from Priti Patel, the Conservative Party’s Shadow Foreign Secretary. Last year members voted for their leader Misley Mandarin to be Interim First Minister of a Chagossian Government-in-Exile. Vanessa Callou has been helping Mauritian Chagossians arriving in the UK last year get accommodation. On 21 September 2025 Mandarin called for Chagossians to vote Reform. Yesterday Mandarin attended the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories All Party Parliamentary Group chaired by Andrew Rosindell MP who recently switched from the Conservatives to Reform. Recently the group said they would name an island after Trump if the President vetoed the treaty deal. Next week on 26 January BIOT Citizen will be outside the House of Lords protesting.
Photo: Misley Mandarin, BIOT Citizen First Minister © BIOT Citizen, 2026
* Chagossian Voices (CV) is a community organisation for Chagossians around the world with a Facebook page and website updating readers with news. The group has opposed the deal with Mauritius on the grounds of self-determination and indigenous rights. Chagossian Voices also rejects the idea that if Mauritius gains sovereignty of the islands, a Mauritian minister should choose the Chagossian representative from the UK. Frankie Bontemps, Chair of CV, has written to the Foreign Secretary this month raising concerns about the Trust Fund for the Benefit of Chagossions Bill currently going through the Mauritian Parliament. He points out that only one UK representative will sit on a proposed Trust Fund Board compared to 5 Chagossians from Mauritius, even though about half of Chagossians live in Britain.
Photo: Frankie Bontemps (left), Chairman, Chagossian Voices at the United Nations, 2024 © THE CHAGOS FILES
* Indigenous Chagossian People (ICP) are a newly formed group with a Facebook page with updates on latest challenges. The ICP is made up of several groups including Association Chagossien De France. Members include Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe who have been leading legal challenges to successive British Governments in support of Chagossian rights for years. Recently the ICP sent hundreds of letters to MPs, Lords and Baronesses in the Houses of Parliament calling for self-determination for the Chagossians and for Parliament to call a Referendum. ICP members have campaigned at the United Nations for several years too. On 2 December the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) reached a formal “decision” on the treaty. It called for the sovereignty treaty bill not to be ratified because it doesn’t allow the Chagossians to resettle on the islands nor have self-determination.
Photo: Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, Indigenous Chagossian People © THE CHAGOS FILES
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More MPs are speaking out against the deal including Labour MPs such as Peter Lamb MP (Lab) for Crawley where many Chagossian people live. This week Lamb wrote to the Chief Whip saying he could not vote for the Government’s bill arguing “Ukrainians, Greenlanders, Chagossians, all of us have a right to self-determination. As a party and a country we should stand up for that right.”
Graham Stringer MP (Lab), writes in The Telegraph this week that, “the [2024 Labour Party Election] manifesto pledges to the British people that Labour will ‘always defend their [British Overseas Territories] sovereignty and right to self-determination.’ The Diego Garcia Bill does the exact opposite.” (5) And Baroness Kate Hoey (Lab) spoke recently in the House of Lords asking, “What’s the difference between [the Government asking Greenlanders what they think of US’s demands over their country and] not allowing the Chagossians to have any say at all in us selling the Chagos Islands off?”
Will the rise of anti-treaty Chagossian campaigners and their supporters on the national and international political stage trigger a rebellion among the British public?
The Foreign Secretary told BBC Radio 4 listeners that the only reason for the deal is that is in the UK’s national interest, to avoid taking risks with national security and avoid legal challenges. She said the treaty deal aims “to strengthen intelligence and cooperation with the United States and that there is a firm legal basis for doing so.” This sounds compelling. Last week the US signed a defence contract for maintaining operations at the military base until 2034.
However the Government’s arguments leave out the right of self-determination for Chagossians to right the wrongs of colonialism and that there are other ways of ensuring Britain’s national security. The arguments for why all British people should be aligning with the Chagossian democratic cause and at the same time supporting national security need to be heard more widely. And in the opinion of THE CHAGOS FILES, to be won.
Tessa Clarke/22 Jan. 2026/UPDATED 24 Jan. 2026/______________________________________________
*NOTE: COST OF THE CHAGOS SOVEREIGNTY DEAL
The £35bn (£34.7bn) figure originates from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD), a report released following a Freedom of Information request by the Conservative Party last year, reports The Telegraph.
The Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper MP this week said on the BBC’s Today programme that this figure was not true. She did not give an alternative total figure on the cost of the Chagos Islands deal. Instead Cooper said that the cost was 0.02% of the Defence annual budget.
Negotiations with Mauritius are still ongoing. And the treaty hasn’t yet been approved by parliament. Negotiations with the US are on-going. There is still a chance the cost could change. Watch this space!
