Why giving up the Chagos Islands might price Britain £9bn – podcast | Chagos Islands

In October final 12 months, the UK and Mauritian governments reached a historic settlement to switch the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, a collection of atolls within the Indian Ocean which have been described as Britain’s final African colony.

It appeared, as political correspondent Eleni Courea describes, a diplomatic triumph for the brand new Labour authorities, ending a long time of authorized dispute over the possession of the islands. And greater than that, it supplied Chagossians, after greater than 50 years of exile, the prospect of returning dwelling. Within the late Nineteen Sixties, when Britain granted independence to the remainder of Mauritius, not solely did it insist on carving out the Chagos Islands to maintain for itself, but it surely forcibly displaced greater than 1,000 individuals who lived there.

A lot of them, together with campaigner Olivier Bancoult, have fought for many years within the years since for the suitable to return, and appear nearer than ever to attaining it.

Nevertheless, as Hannah Moore hears, the deal will not be but confirmed, and is on shaky floor. The Mauritian authorities that agreed it has since been voted out, and its successor is much less certain about its deserves. What’s extra, any deal can be depending on the approval of the US – which runs the navy Diego Garcia base on the islands – and whereas the Biden administration signed it off in October, Trump’s crew have expressed reservations.

There have been issues on the home entrance for Labour too, with questions more and more requested about why Britain is paying an estimated £9bn within the deal at hand over the islands. So will they hold their nerve and push via the deal? And if not, what is going to it imply for Chagossians, akin to Bancoult, longing to return?