Chagossians Get Great News in UK Elections!

There's good news from the UK.

On July 4th, the prospects for the Chagossians finally returning home improved dramatically with the Labour Party’s election victory, returning Labour to power for the first time in 14 years.

Although Labour leaders played key roles in the Chagossian exile, there’s real optimism that new Foreign Secretary David Lammy will make good on his stated support for the UK righting “a historic wrong” and allowing Chagossians “to return home” (as he wrote in the 2022 tweet above).

Lammy is also the first UK Foreign Secretary who, like Chagossians, is the descendant of enslaved Africans. Chagossian leaders Olivier Bancoult and Sabrina Jean have already called on Lammy to work with Chagossians to allow them to return and “repair [the] injustice done.”

In other good news, the Chagossians’ greatest supporter in Parliament over decades, Jeremy Corbyn, won re-election as an independent.


What the US Government Must Do

Given Labour’s professed support for the Chagossians, we must now pressure the Biden administration and the US military to support a return rather than being the impediment to justice that US officials have been since orchestrating the Chagossian exile six decades ago. This would be an easy way for Biden to show—not just say—he supports basic human rights and international law.


Others Speaking Out for Chagossians

Human Rights Watch will be pressing the UK and US governments to make good on past promises and allow the Chagossians to return; HRW is also supporting Chagossians’ demands for proper compensation. Retired UK government official David Snoxell has said, “Britain’s new government should resume Chagos Islands negotiations” with the government of Mauritius to allow resettlement.