Expulsion of the Chagossians

Uncommon card · No. 154966

Between 1967 and 1973 the United Kingdom removed the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, or prevented its members from returning, to make way for a United States military base on Diego Garcia. The islanders, then known as the Ilois and now generally as Chagossians, were taken to Mauritius and Seychelles. The archipelago had been detached from the colony of Mauritius in 1965 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), and in December 1966 the United Kingdom agreed with the United States to take the "administrative measures" needed to make the islands available for defence purposes, including "resettling any inhabitants". Those who had left the islands for Mauritius in 1967 and 1968 were refused passage home. The population of Diego Garcia was moved in 1971, mainly to the other atolls of the archipelago and to Seychelles and Mauritius, and the last inhabitants left Peros Banhos in May 1973. In Mauritius most lived in severe poverty, and no resettlement...

Read on Wikipedia