Court Backs Exiled Islanders Against 'repugnant' Actions of Ministers

A group of islanders who were removed from their homes in the Indian Ocean decades ago to make way for a US airbase yesterday celebrated victory at the high court in London.

After hearing a judgment critical of ministers' actions, islanders called on the Queen to apologise for what her government had done and said they hoped to return home as soon as possible.

Lord Justice Hooper and Mr Justice Cresswell ruled that orders made under the royal prerogative to prevent the return of the Chagos islanders to their homes were unlawful. They described as "repugnant" the action to exile the population of the islands. "The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an order in council, exile a whole population from a British overseas territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is, to us, repugnant," the judges said. "The defendant's approach to this case involves much clanking of the 'chains of the ghosts of the past'."

About 2,000 islanders were forcibly removed between 1965 and 1973 to make way for the Diego Garcia US airbase, which has been used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are an estimated 4,000 members of the 65-island diaspora now living in Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK, where there is a small community in Crawley, West Sussex.

"The British government has been defeated in its attempt to abolish the right of abode of the islanders after first deporting them in secret 30 years ago," said Richard Gifford, the lawyer representing the islanders. "The story of their forced removal, their sufferings in exile and their desperate struggle to return are described in detail in the judgment. The responsibility of our present government for victimising its own citizens and its subservience to the demands of a foreign power are all too obvious."

Mr Gifford said it was the fourth time in the past five years that the courts had deplored the treatment of the islanders. "The Chagossian people can now continue their struggle to return to their homeland in the knowledge that a senior court of law has again declared their right to do so."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was given 28 days to appeal. A spokesman said: "We are disappointed at the judgment."

During the case, Sir Sydney Kentridge QC, representing Olivier Bancoult, under whose name the action was brought, described the treatment of the Chagossians as "outrageous, unlawful and a breach of accepted moral standards". John Howell QC, for the Foreign Office, said the government had acted within its powers.

Outside court, more than 20 islanders and their supporters celebrated the victory. Mr Bancoult, who was displaced as a child, said: "Although we are a small people, we always had faith in our struggle. What the UK has done to us is unlawful and our aim is to return as soon as possible. We will look for help from everyone to go back. We had been living there for many generations and we now have the right to return to our birthplace. I personally think that the Queen should apologise."

At the court for the verdict was 65-year-old Lisette Taleti, two of whose children died during the evacuation. "I am very, very happy about the decision," she said through a translator.

"This is a stunning legal victory not only for the Chagos community but for other dispossessed people," said Cynthia Morel, of Minority Rights Group International, which supported the legal action. She said it was essential that the media and international community ensured that the right to return was upheld.