Category Archives: Mauritius

Breakdown in global order causing progress to stall in Africa – report

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‘Moral threshold coming down,’ warns Mo Ibrahim, as his index of governance reveals widespread decline in 10 years

The global rise of populism and “strongmen” has led to an increase in authoritarianism in Africa that is holding back progress in governance, the businessman and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim has said.

According to the latest edition of the Ibrahim index of African governance, 78% of Africa’s citizens live in a country where security and democracy deteriorated between 2014 and 2023.

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Suddenly, all MPs know where the Chagos Islands are and what’s best for them | John Crace

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Many who last week couldn’t have got within 500 miles of Mauritius on a map now can’t bear it taking the archipelago

What a difference a week makes. Just last Wednesday, you could have put money on most MPs being totally clueless about the exact location of the Chagos Islands. Give them a map and many would have better luck being blindfolded.

Even a hint wouldn’t have made much difference. Are they east, west, south or north of Mauritius? To be in with a shout, you have to know where Mauritius is. And most MPs wouldn’t get within 500 miles. The Indian Ocean is bigger than you think. And don’t get them started on Diego Garcia. Surely he’s the younger brother of the titular character in the 1974 Sam Peckinpah film Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

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Lammy defends Chagos deal, saying it saves important UK-US military base

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Foreign secretary says status quo not sustainable as Tory MPs accuse Labour of giving away key asset

David Lammy has hailed the decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as a deal to save a strategically important UK-US military base, after accusations from opposition MPs that a key asset was being given away.

The government announced last week that it was going to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, but the military base on Diego Garcia will remain under UK control.

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Starmer defends UK ceding control of Chagos Islands amid Tory criticism

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PM says deal has secured future of US-UK military base as Conservative leadership hopefuls play blame game

Keir Starmer has defended giving up UK control of the Chagos Islands, as the decision has descended into a political blame game among Conservative leadership candidates.

The prime minister said the agreement with Mauritius over the islands would secure the long-term future of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, which he deemed as the “single most important thing”.

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Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute

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Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony.

The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who the UK expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.

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Chagos Islanders fear loss of identity as birth certificates altered to remove disputed homeland

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Birthplace and parents’ names are being removed from passports and birth certificates as Mauritius stakes claim to the island

Exiled islanders from the disputed British-owned Chagos Islands are finding their heritage has been removed from new identity documents in an apparent move by Mauritius to stake its claim to the territory.

British ownership of the Chagos Islands has long been challenged by Mauritius, where most islanders were shipped in the 1960s after being evicted from their Indian Ocean homeland to make way for a US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island.

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Fashion firms agree to compensate garment workers in Mauritius

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Calvin Klein, Hilfiger and Barbour among brands to pay £400,000 after report alleges illegal hiring fees, deception and intimidation

Leading fashion brands including Barbour and PVH, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, have said they will pay £400,000 to garment workers in Mauritius after an investigation found that migrant workers were forced to pay thousands of pounds for their jobs.

Transparentem, a US-based organisation that investigates workers’ rights, looked into conditions at five factories in Mauritius and interviewed 83 workers in 2022 and 2023.

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Chagos islanders must get full reparations for forced exile, says NGO

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Human Rights Watch also demands trial for ‘appalling colonial crime’ of expulsion – and continuing ill treatment – of Chagossians

The UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by its forcible displacement of Chagos Islands inhabitants in the 1960s and 70s, an action that constituted a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said.

The NGO said that individuals should be put on trial for the expulsion of Chagossians when the UK retained possession of what it refers to as British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.

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Negotiations on Chagos Islands’ sovereignty face legal challenge

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Pre-action letter says talks between UK and Mauritius ‘being held without consulting Chagossian people’

A legal attempt has been launched to halt negotiations between the UK and Mauritius over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, Britain’s last African colony, claiming Chagossian people’s views are being ignored.

Bernadette Dugasse, who was born on Diego Garcia, an island within what is known today as the British Indian Ocean Territory, is seeking judicial review of the government’s approach to the talks.

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Chagos Islanders demand say as UK-Mauritius sovereignty talks begin

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Lobby group says future being decided ‘without the involvement of the actual community itself’

Descendants of the people of the Chagos Islands have claimed their views are being ignored as the prime minister of Mauritius announced the start of talks with Britain over the territory’s sovereignty.

Pravind Jugnauth, who has led the Mauritian government since 2017, used a new year’s address to reveal that talks with London were under way over the disputed Indian Ocean archipelago.

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The Chagos Islanders taking back their birthplace from the British: ‘They uprooted us’ – video

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More than 50 years after they were forcibly removed from their homes, former residents of Britain’s last colony in Africa are challenging the UK’s claim to the archipelago. After a five-day journey across the ocean, from which they returned this week, a small delegation of Chagos Islanders made an emotional return to their homeland. They were there to symbolically lay claim to the islands for Mauritius, in the hope of eventually resettling there. Olivier Bancoult was four years old when his family was deported to Mauritius from the Chagos Islands. We follow his journey 

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Mauritius asks Google to label Chagos Islands as part of its territory

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Row breaks out over Google Maps definition as UK insists it still maintains sovereignty

When you are searching online for some of the remotest islands on the planet, it helps to get the name right. But a row has broken out over the labelling of the Chagos Islands on Google maps.

The UK maintains that it still holds sovereignty over what it terms British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) – one of the smallest of red dots on the traditional cartographic globe.

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Chagossian exiles celebrate emotional return as UK tries to justify control

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World sympathy and legal balance shifting to Mauritian claim to islands

Standing in the hospital room where she gave birth to her first child, Rosemonde Bertin looked around in despair. The roof had collapsed, trees grew through the floor and a rusting, enamelled bedpan lay half concealed by ferns.

“I had my baby here,” Bertin said. “He was born in 1972.” That was shortly before everyone on Salomon atoll was forcibly deported by the British to Mauritius and Seychelles.

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Mauritius formally challenges Britain’s ownership of Chagos Islands

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Mauritian ambassador to UN raises country’s flag above atoll of Peros Banhos

Britain’s ownership of the Chagos archipelago has been formally challenged after the Mauritian ambassador to the UN, Jagdish Koonjul, raised his country’s flag above the atoll of Peros Banhos.

In a ceremony on Monday at 10.30am local time, Mauritian officials sang their country’s national anthem and the red, blue, yellow and green standard was raised up the flagpole.

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Mauritius measures reef hoping to lay claim on Chagos Islands

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Dispute over archipelago in Indian Ocean involves neighbouring Maldives and UK historical claim


Under a glaring sky, Mauritian survey teams set off in two tender boats to measure Blenheim Reef on Sunday morning.

A line of breakers marked the outer line of the atoll. An inflatable, carrying two Swedish marine experts retained by the Mauritian government, found an entrance through submerged rocks and surf into calmer water inside.

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Exiled Chagos Islanders return without UK officials for first time

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Fifty years since they were deported to Mauritius by the UK, Chagossians are still fighting for their homeland

Returning to their birthplace after decades of enforced exile, five Chagossians leapt from a motor launch on to the palm-shaded beach of Peros Banhos atoll on Saturday afternoon, kissed the pale sand and stood – hands joined together – in thanksgiving prayers.

For Olivier Bancoult, Lisbey Elyse, Marie Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert, it was the moment they had long anticipated – the first time they could step ashore without close monitoring by British officials.

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Exiled Chagos Islanders bask in return ‘as pilgrims to abandoned place’

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Fifty years after the UK forcibly deported them, five Chagossians have visited the disputed archipelago with Mauritius’s help

Returning to their birthplace after decades of enforced exile, five Chagossians leapt from a motor launch on to the palm-shaded beach of Peros Banhos atoll on Saturday afternoon, kissed the sand and stood – hands joined together – in prayer.

For Olivier Bancoult, Lisbey Elyse, Marie Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert, it was the moment they had long anticipated – the first time they could step ashore without close close monitoring by British officials. It is 50 years since they were forcibly deported to Mauritius by the UK, which cleared the archipelago of its entire population to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.

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‘I will be free’: excitement grows as cruise ship nears Chagos Islands

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Exiles intend to plant Mauritian flag on land UK claims as part of British Indian Ocean Territory

For Olivier Bancoult, of the Chagos Refugee Group, it was the sight of two skuas gliding over the waves that heralded long-promised landfall on his native islands.

During the first three days of the voyage from Seychelles there had been remarkably few seabirds, until the Mauritian-chartered Bleu De Nîmes, a cruise ship converted from its former use as a British minesweeper, neared the Chagos Islands.

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Mauritius warns UK firm over coins amid Chagos Islands dispute

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Surrey-based Pobjoy Mint accused of violating international law by producing fish-decorated currency

The directors of a British firm producing tropical fish-themed coins for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) are being threatened with prosecution by Mauritius as the net tightens around the UK’s claim to sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.

The family-owned Pobjoy Mint, based in Kingswood, Surrey, has received a formal letter from Mauritius’s attorney general, Maneesh Gobin, telling its owners they are violating international law by manufacturing the currency without the correct legal permission.

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