Leave Chagos Now, Britain Tells Returning Islanders
A group of Chagos islanders who have returned to the territory to protest against Sir Keir Starmer’s handover deal have been told by Britain they must leave or face up to three years in jail. The Telegraph has the story.
A small group of men and women were served with an eviction notice by the Government just 24 hours after landing back on the islands.
Misley Mandarin, the islands’ elected First Minister, who arrived on the archipelago with his father and other islanders on Tuesday, said the notice was a “disgrace”, adding that he was prepared to go to prison.
He said the document, which threatened the group with up to three years in prison if they failed to comply, was given to him by the British Indian Ocean Territory police.
A Foreign Office spokesman described the journey as an “illegal, unsafe stunt”.
On Wednesday, Mandarin told TalkTV: “[Police] sent me an eviction notice, and they said if I don’t leave there, I will be jailed for three years, which I’m happy to do for my country – I’ve got the right to be here.
“This is my homeland. My Dad is next to me. My Dad was born on this island. My Dad was exiled, and now this Government is trying to exile us a second time.”
Sir Keir agreed to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in May last year. Under the deal, the UK will lease back Diego Garcia, a UK-US military base, at a cost of more than £30 billion for the next 99 years.
The agreement was met with widespread protest from islanders, who said they were not adequately consulted on the deal and wished to return to the territory.
Mandarin filmed the makeshift settlement that he established on the island, holding up an extract of the document entitled a “removal order” under the British Indian Ocean Territory (Immigration) Order 2004.
The site appeared to be made up of four tents on the shore of the island, with one of the tents displaying the Chagos Islands flag at its entrance. …
Dame Priti Patel called the move to remove the islanders “shameful”.
“We warned that his actions would put Chagossians at risk of repression by the Mauritian Government. And now our own Government is doing Mauritius’s bidding, threatening Chagossians with prison sentences or crippling fines for landing on the Islands,” the Shadow Foreign Secretary said.
Worth reading in full.
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I would have thought that resettling an uninhabited island to make new homes for unwilling immigrants to UK would be applauded not condemned by the government.
These people didn’t immigrate into the UK. They were deported to it in the name of the “security” of the military base mentioned in the text.
Quite so. But the government’s desparation to get this surrender deal through encourages the suspicion that there are people in and around the government who have personal motives for selling the Chagos Islanders and the UK down the river.
Well done Mr Mandarin and colleagues!
Priti Patel gives the impression that the Chagos deal was initiated and finalised under Starmer’s premiership. I cannot believe that the previous government had nothing to do with it.
The Tories admit that they initiated discussion with Mauritius but claim that that Cameron closed them down when he became Foreign Secretary.
Any chance we could get the British Indian Ocean Territory Police to patrol the English Channel too?
💯
A typical lefty trick here. How can they say with certainty that someone will go to prison for three years, perhaps if you have political trials as proposed by Mr Lammy that could, or should I say probably would happen. But a proper interpretation by a judge and jury would be more acceptable if these tyrants in government ever get their way.
This is typical authoritarian behaviour and is another reason why the UK and EU are the successors to the Soviet Union. If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck then it an effing duck.
All matters Chagos have left me in a confused daze for months already. I can’t keep up.
All you need to know is that we are the evil white colonialists and that nice man Mr Starmer is going to right past injustices with our money
And if any annoying third world types get in the way then nice Mr Starmer and his caring “human rights” pals will find prison cells for them.
Funny as it may seem, but evil colonialism was also already paid for by Starmer’s predecessors in office in the exact same way.
“You’re liable to pay for the damage we did with the money we took from you last time” is an interesting theory.
Check out Lionel Shriver on YouTube. She absolutely eviscerates lefties and gets right to the contradictions and self delusions they live under. She also has a great sense of humour and has written several books which have been well received by people with brains. I hope The Sceptic asks her to pen an article at some point, she would be an enormous contributor.
She did already. Just one, though.
https://staging.dailysceptic.org/2023/10/25/my-response-to-rules-i-dont-accept-is-to-break-them/
She is often on spiked.
You have to wonder if Labour have been planning to hand over the territory to a communist country ever since the 1960s.
The other overseas territories need to be prepared. China would like all of them.
I think there is no present danger to the Falklands. Labour hates the free market libertarian President do they would rather wait in the hope of a left winger in Buenos Aires whom they could reward.
“A Foreign Office spokesman described the journey as an “illegal, unsafe stunt”.
An “illegal and unsafe stunt” what like crossing the channel in a rubber boat?
Pity they can’t be as robust with illegal immigrants to Britain, 3 years in jail!?
Yes indeed. I can’t work out if they’re too stupid to see the double standard (multiplied by tens of thousands annually), or just too cynical to care that we see it.
So, it seems Cur Kwier isn’t allowing these brave Chagossians to return home to their own islands, which apparently we don’t own anyway.. so why do we get to police their waters then ?
Some ‘human rights’ lawyer!
The BBC has yet to carry this news item. I wonder how they’ll spin it?
Do not give away Diego Garcia, Trump tells UK says the BBC without mentioning the Chagossians
Not only that but they’re only 1,047 miles from the Seychelles, 628 miles from the Maldives and 1,029 miles from Sri Lanka. If they insist on giving them away why not hand them over to any of these?
Personally I understood its not a done deal yet, but then 10 mins in politics today means everything can change.
Even more notes for Reform UK 🇬🇧. Thanks Keir 👏 But don’t worry, when President Trump tells two-tier to “jump”….Starmers will answer ” How high”
Just an afterthought.Mr Mandarin reported that “[Police] sent me an eviction notice, and they said if I don’t leave there, I will be jailed for three years,”
Under English law, a man is still presumed innocent until proven guilty. Yet here we learn that “Police” not simply warnied him of a pesumed offence, but had apparently aleady decided that he will be cherged, and then that he will be found guilty.
And to cap it all, they even decided in advnce what his , and then even worse, they predictedthat he will be sentanced to a three year term in prison.
I know that justice nowadays is hampered by insidious lawfare against the common man iun the street (or even island), but this goes beyond belief! Is that not somewhet unusual, even in today’s Orwellin State, for a man to regarded as innocent until proven guilty? And precisely which ‘police’ force will carry out this sumary ‘justioe’? Chagos seems to be rather remote from any authorised British police force jurisdiction.