Tag: Mauritius

Africa

UK offers new ‘detention facility’ to Diego Garcia detainees

Diego GarciaWith conditions among the asylum seekers on Diego Garcia growing dire and the island set to be ceded to Mauritius, the UK is under pressure to relocate the 56 Sri Lankan asylum seekers stranded there, plus eight receiving medical treatment in Rwanda. The British government has offered to transfer 36 of them to a UN-run transit center in Romania. After six months there, if they do not accept repatriation or re-settlement in another country, they will be accepted to the UK. However, lawyers are trying to have the group brought to the UK directly, arguing that forcing them to spend six months in a Romanian "detention facility" would "cause them to suffer further avoidable harm." The Romania plan has also upset the 28 men who did not receive the offer and have been told they will stay on the island indefinitely if they do not accept repatriation. At least two began a hunger strike in protest. (Photo via TNH)

Africa

UK to transfer sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

ChagosThe UK announced that it will transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, now ruled as the British Indian Ocean Territory, to Mauritius after more than two centuries of control. A joint statement issued by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth hails the accord as an "historic political agreement on the exercise of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago." The UK-US military base on the archipelago's principal island of Diego Garcia will remain operational for an initial period of 99 years to ensure its continued "vital role in regional and global security." The UK will be "authorised to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius" on Diego Garcia. The decision follows two years of negotiations over the future of the islands between the two nations. (Map: Republic of Mauritius)

South Asia

Diego Garcia detainees in bureaucratic limbo

Diego GarciaLawyers for some of approximately 60 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers stranded on the British-held island of Diego Garcia have appealed to the UK's new Foreign Minister David Lammy to intervene after the US blocked them from visiting the island for a hearing set to take place this week. The US runs a secretive military facility on the island, and issued the decision to bar the legal team on a "confidential" basis, citing "national security." The lawyers are accusing the island's government—the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) administration—of illegally detaining their clients, who have been confined to a small camp for nearly three years after fleeing Sri Lanka and India by boat. The BIOT administration claims to have no role in negotiating permission for the visit, but lawyers for the asylum-seekers say the administration has a duty to persuade the US to allow the hearing to take place and ensure the rule of law on the remote British territory. (Photo via TNH)

Oceania

Small Island States conference rebukes developed nations

VanuatuThe president of the Fourth International Conference of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Gaston Alphonso Browne, accused wealthy nations of empty climate pledges, referring to a lack of financial help to developing countries, along with the inadequacy of carbon emission reduction efforts. The summit was hosted by Antigua & Barbuda, where Browne serves as prime minister. Browne blasted developed nations for failing to meet their "obligation to compensation" to the SIDS nations. This refers to the annual $100 billion that was agreed to under the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2009 and reiterated in the 2015 Paris Agreement. (Photo of Vanuatu: David Cobbin via NUPI)

Africa
Chagos Islands

UN tribunal rejects UK rule of Chagos Islands

indigenous RussiaThe Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders released a statement urging Russia to refrain from designating groups advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities as "extremist organizations." The statement follows a decision by Russian authorities a week earlier to thusly classify 55 such organizations. The Ministry of Justice cited a June ruling by Russia's Supreme Court banning "structural divisions" of the so-called "Anti-Russian Separatist Movement," which was defined as an "international public movement to destroy the multinational unity and territorial integrity of Russia." Involvement in the movement may result in a sentence of up to six years in prison—despite the fact that no such movement formally exists. (Image: Indigenous Russia)

Africa

General Assembly: UK must return Chagos Islands

MinskLong-ruling strongman Alexander Lukashenko cut off internet across most of Belarus as the country explodes into angry protests in the wake of contested presidential elections. Riot police are unleashing harsh repression, using rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and water hoses against demonstrators. One person has been reported killed and many more wounded, including several police officers. According to preliminary results, Lukashenko won an unlikely 80% of the vote, with the main opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya taking only 10%. Tikhanovskaya was a surprise replacement for her husband Sergei, a popular blogger who was arrested after he attempted to launch his candidacy. She held large rallies in Minsk and other cities, riding a groundswell of discontent with Lukashenko. (Photo: Meduza)

Africa
Chagos Islands

ICJ urges UK to end rule over Chagos islands

ChagosThe International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion outlining the legal consequences of separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. The UK detached the Chagos Archipelago form Mauritius upon decolonization and established the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). The British subsequently allowed the United States to establish a military base on the island Diego Garcia, with many inhabitants forcibly removed, and those who left voluntarily prevented from returning. The ICJ opinion says the UK did not lawfully decolonize the islands, and urges the UK to end its continued administration over Chagos Archipelago: “[T]he United Kingdom has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible." (Photo: WILPF)

Africa

World Court hears Mauritius claim against UK

ChagosThe government of the island nation of Mauritius presented its claim to the International Court of Justice that the British government forced the transfer of the Chagos Islands as a condition of independence in 1965. The UK leased the island of Diego Garcia within the archipelago to the US in 1966, which was used to build a military base that required the forced removal of around 1,500 people. The population has yet to be allowed to return home. Former prime minister of Mauritius and current parliamentarian Anerood Jugnauth told the ICJ, “The choice we were faced with was no choice at all: it was independence with detachment [of the Chagos archipelago] or no independence with detachment anyway.” The location of the Chagos Islands in the central Indian Ocean is seen as strategic for policing the Persian Gulf. In 2016 the US lease for the base was extended until 2036. (Photo: WILPF)