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Chagossians
The Chagossians — also called Chagos Islanders or — are an Afro-Asians, Afro-Asian ethnic group originating from freed African slaves as well as people of Asian (Indian and Malay) descent brought to the Chagos Islands, specifically Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon Islands, Salomon island chain, in the late 18th century. Under international law, they are the indigenous people of the Chagos archipelago. Most Chagossians now live in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the United Kingdom after the Depopulation of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago, unlawfully forcible removal by the British government in the late 1960s and early 1970s so that Diego Garcia, the island where most Chagossians lived, could serve as the location for a joint British Forces British Indian Ocean Territories, United Kingdom–Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, United States military base. Today, no Chagossians are allowed to live on the island of Diego Garcia, nor anywhere in the Chagos Archipe ...
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Depopulation Of Chagossians From The Chagos Archipelago
The United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began expelling the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968, concluding its forced deportations on 27 April 1973 with the expulsion of the remaining Chagossians on the Peros Banhos atoll.The High Court of Justice Queens Bench Division, Case No: HQ02X01287, Approved Judgment, 2003
Paragraph 396.
The inhabitants, known at the time as the ''Ilois'', are today known as Chagossians, Chagos Islanders or Chagossians. The British government separated the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, creating a new colony in Africa, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). To avoid accountability to the United Nations for its continued colonial rule, the UK falsely claimed that the Chagos had no permanent popu ...
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Chagos Islands
The Chagos Archipelago (, ) or Chagos Islands (formerly , and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. In its north are the Salomon Islands, Nelsons Island and Peros Banhos; towards its south-west are the Three Brothers, Chagos, Three Brothers, Eagle Islands, Egmont Islands and Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Danger Island; southeast of these is Diego Garcia, by far the largest island. All are low-lying atolls, save for a few extremely small instances, set around lagoons. From 1715 to 1810, the Chagos Islands were part of France's List of French possessions and colonies, Indian Ocean possessions, administered through Isle de France (Mauritius), Isle de Francewhich was a French colonial empire, colony of France (later renamed as Mauritius). ...
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Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago. It has been used as a joint UK–U.S. military base since the 1970s, following the expulsion of the Chagossians by the UK government. The Chagos Islands are set to become a former British Overseas Territories, British overseas territory — a treaty to transfer sovereignty from the UK to Mauritius was signed on 22 May 2025, with a provision that the military base at the island would remain under British control for at least 99 years. Located just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia lies east of Tanzania, east-southeast of Somalia, south of the Maldives, southwest of India, west-southwest of Sumatra, northwest of Australia, and northeast of Mauritius#Mauritius_Island, Mauritius Island. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, an underwater mountain range that includes the Lakshadweep, the Maldives, and the other 60 small islands of the Chagos Archi ...
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Chagos Archipelago Sovereignty Dispute
Sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago was disputed between Mauritius and the United Kingdom. Mauritius has repeatedly claimed the Chagos Archipelago as part of its territory and that the British claim is a violation of United Nations resolutions banning the dismemberment of colonial territories before independence. Given the absence of any progress with the UK, Mauritius took up the matter at various legal and political forums. Between 1967 and 1973, the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago was either prevented from returning or forcibly removed by the United Kingdom. The main forcible removal of Diego Garcia’s population took place in July and September 1971. On 18 March 2015, the Permanent Court of Arbitration unanimously held that the Chagos Marine Protected Area, marine protected area (MPA) which the United Kingdom declared around the Chagos Archipelago in April 2010 was created in violation of international law. The UK had argued that those undertakings were not bi ...
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Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga, and St. Brandon (Cargados Carajos shoals). The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion (a French overseas department), are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans and has an exclusive economic zone covering approximately . The 1502 Portuguese Cantino planisphere has led some historians to speculate that Arab sailors were the first to discover the uninhabited island around 975, naming it ''Dina Arobi''. Called ''Ilha do Cirne'' or ''Ilha do Cerne'' on early Portuguese maps, the island was visited by Portuguese sailors in 1507. A Dutch fleet, under the command of Admiral Van War ...
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Crawley
Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 118,493 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 Census. Southern parts of the borough lie immediately next to the High Weald National Landscape. The area has been inhabited since Three-age system, the Stone Age, and was a Wealden iron industry, centre of ironworking in the Iron Age and Roman Britain, Roman times. The area was probably used by the kings of Sussex for hunting.'The Kent and Sussex Weald, Peter Brandon, published by Phillimore and Company, 2003 Initially a clearing in the vast forest of the Weald, Crawley began as a settlement on the boundary of two of the sub-regions particular to Sussex, known as rape (county subdivision), Rapes, the Rape of Bramber and the Rape of Lewes. Becoming a market town in 1202, C ...
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Salomon Islands
The Salomon Islands or Salomon Atoll is a small atoll of the Chagos Archipelago. Description The atoll is located in the northeast of the Chagos Archipelago, between Blenheim Reef and Peros Banhos. The main islands in the group are Île Boddam, with the former main settlement, and a land area of , and Île Anglaise (), both on the western rim of the reef. There were smaller settlements of Chagossians in Fouquet () and Takamaka () Islands. Île de la Passe is in area, and Île Mapou . The remaining islets are much smaller. The total land area is . There is a passage into the lagoon, named Baie de Salomon, on the Northern side, between Île Anglaise and Île de la Passe. The Salomon Islands are one of the favorite anchoring spots for itinerant yachtsmen passing through the Chagos, even though there are no proper moorings for yachts and a permit of the BIOT authorities is needed. Now uninhabited, the islands are overrun by low jungle between the coconut trees and it is hard to ...
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Audrey Albert
Audrey Albert is a Mauritian artist with Chagossian heritage, whose work reflects the cultural heritage and identities of Chagos Islanders. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and in 2021 she was appointed to a Creative Fellowship at Manchester International Festival. Biography Born in Mauritius, to a family of Chagossian heritage, Albert studied political science and communication at the University of Mauritius from 2009 to 2013. She subsequently studied photography at Manchester School of Art from 2015 to 2018. Albert's artistic practice draws on themes of identity and tradition and draws on Chagossian cultural heritage, primarily through cameraless, analogue and digital photography. Her work ''Matter Out of Place'' has been exhibited in Pingyao, Mauritius, Arles, and at the People's History Museum in Manchester. In 2020 she designed Christmas cards, which were sold as part of fund-raising initiatives by the UK Chagos Support Association. In 2021 she was appoin ...
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Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, abbreviated NSF Diego Garcia, is a British Ministry of Defence facility leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, for an initial period of 99 years after the expulsion of over 2,000 inhabitants of the island, descendants of plantation workers brought there by European colonial powers. Camp Thunder Cove is part of the facility, and is operated by the United States Armed Forces and British Armed Forces. In 2016, the British renewed the lease until 2036, and stated that dispossessed islanders would not be permitted to return. Mission NSF Diego Garcia provides Base Operating Services to tenant commands located on the island. The command's mission is "To provide logistic support to operational forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf AORs in support of national policy objectives." As of January 2012, the facility supported the following tenant commands: * Maritime Pre-Positioni ...
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Peros Banhos
Peros Banhos, Pedro dos Banhos or Baixos de Pêro dos Banhos in old maps, is a formerly inhabited atoll in the Chagos Archipelago. Île Yeye, located at the northeastern corner of the atoll, is the island of the Chagos Archipelago that is closest to the Maldives. Geography The atoll has a total area of , but a land area of only , made up by some 32 islets. , most of the remaining surface is occupied by the lagoon, which is connected to the open sea and the reef flat. Peros Banhos is a medium-sized coralline atoll circled by a regular coral reef, similar to those in the neighboring Maldives. The diameter of the lagoon, known as ''Baie de Peros Banhos'' in French, is just above 20 km. The circling reef is sunken on its southeastern rim. All islands are flat and sandy and the largest ones are covered with coconut trees. The largest and most important island in the group is Île du Coin. It was home to the Perch Settlement from where the coconut plantations of the atoll wer ...
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Mauritian Creoles
Mauritian Creoles are the people on the islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, Agaléga and the Chagos Archipelago and in the wider overseas Mauritian diaspora who trace their roots to continental Africans who were brought to Mauritius under slavery from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The majority of these enslaved people came from the region in and around modern day Mozambique and Madagascar (with significant minorities from other parts of Africa and even some from Asia). Creole peoples (a grouping which Mauritian Creoles are a part of) can be found on other islands in the Mascarene Islands (including Reunion island and the Seychelles) and these groups all share cultural and linguistic connections with one another stemming from the common heritage of their African ancestors. It can also refer to and include Christian members of the country's mixed race community. In government records, creoles along with Franco-Mauritians form part of the broader group known as Populat ...
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Seychellois Creole
Seychellois Creole (), also known as Kreol, Seselwa Creole French, and Seselwa Creole is the French-based creole language spoken by the Seychellois Creole people, Seychelles Creole people of the Seychelles. It is one of the national language, national languages of the Seychelles. History The Seychelles were first settled in 1770, by French settlers from the island of Mauritius. The islands population was mostly made up of slaves with a few whites and free Negro, free blacks. Over time the Mauritian creole that was spoken by the slave population diverged enough from Mauritian Creole to be considered its own creole separate from Mauritian Creole. It further diverged after the freeing of Seychelles slaves in 1835 and the subsequent influx of Bantu peoples from East Africa to the islands. 49 fables of La Fontaine were adapted to the dialect around 1900 by Rodolphine Young (1860–1932) but these remained unpublished until 1983. Status The History of Seychelles#Independence, Sey ...
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