Chagossians want sovereignty deal to go ahead, says Mauritius legal adviser
His comments came a day after a panel of UN experts urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to abandon the agreement reached with Mauritius last month and negotiate a new one.
The panel, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said it was 'gravely concerned about the lack of meaningful participation of Chagossians in the processes that have led to the agreement'.
The experts also criticised the continuing bar on Chagossians returning to Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, because of the ongoing presence of a joint UK-US military base.
On Wednesday, Mr Sands told the Lords International Relations and Defence Committee: 'To be clear, it is not the case that Chagossians had no role in the negotiations.
'I can tell you that Chagossians in Mauritius and Seychelles were deeply involved in consulting with successive prime ministers of Mauritius and they attended the hearings at the International Court of Justice.'
He added: 'I want to really knock on the head this idea that all of the Chagossians were not involved in the various processes. That is simply not true.
'It is true, however, that the Chagossian community is divided and I respect that division.'
Earlier, he had told the committee that, while some UK-based Chagossians wanted the islands to remain British territory, 'most in Mauritius and Seychelles have made very clear…that they wish this deal to go ahead'.
The Chagossians were expelled from the islands between 1965 and 1973 to make way for the Diego Garcia base and have not been allowed to return.But Mr Sands told peers the 'quid pro quo' for the military base remaining on Diego Garcia was Chagossians would be allowed to settle on the outer islands of the archipelago.
The deal follows a 2019 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice saying the islands should be handed over to Mauritius.
As well as establishing a £40 million fund for Chagossians, the UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120 million a year for 99 years in order to lease back the Diego Garcia base – a total cost of at least £13 billion in cash terms.
The deal also includes provisions preventing development on the rest of the archipelago without the UK's consent, which the Government has said will prevent countries such as China setting up their own facilities.
The agreement has also been backed by the United States, the UN secretary general and the African Union, but heavily criticised by the Conservative Party as a 'surrender'.
Mr Sands disagreed with that on Wednesday, saying the deal 'will enhance Britain's position in the world'.
He said: 'I can tell you from personal experience, direct comments from countries, ambassadors, prime ministers, presidents around the world, this is seen as Britain back on the world (stage), acting honourably and decently, protecting its interests and safeguarding…the rule of law.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
20 minutes ago
- BBC News
Israel calls up 60,000 reservists ahead of Gaza City offensive
The Israeli military says it is calling up about 60,000 reservists ahead of a planned ground offensive to capture and occupy all of Gaza City.A military official said the reservists would report for duty in September and that most of the troops mobilised for the offensive would be active-duty added that troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia areas as part of the preparations for the plan, which Defence Minister Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and will be put to the security cabinet later this of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City are expected to be ordered to evacuate and head to shelters in southern Gaza. Many of Israel's allies have condemned the plan, while the UN and other non-governmental organisations have warned that another offensive and further mass displacement will have a "horrific humanitarian impact" after 22 months of government announced its intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last mediators are trying to secure an agreement before the offensive begins and have presented a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of around half of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza, which Hamas said it had accepted on has not yet submitted a formal response, but Israeli officials insisted on Tuesday that they would no longer accept a partial deal and demanded a comprehensive one that would see all the hostages released. Only 20 of the hostages are believed to be alive. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that orders calling up 60,000 reservists were issued on Wednesday as part of the preparations for "the next phase of Operation Gideon's Chariots" - the offensive that it launched in addition, 20,000 reservists who had already been called up would receive a notice extending their current orders, it Israeli military official said senior commanders had approved the plan for a "gradual" and "precise" operation in and around Gaza City, and that the chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, was expected to finalise them in the coming divisions are expected to take part in the offensive, according to the Haaretz newspaper quoted Defence Minister Katz as saying on Tuesday: "Once the operation is completed, Gaza will change its face and will no longer look as it did in the past."He also reportedly approved a plan to "accommodate" Gaza City residents in the south of the territory, including the coastal al-Mawasi area, where the military has begun establishing additional food distribution points and field Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military's objectives are to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas and "complete the defeat" of the Palestinian armed IDF also announced on Wednesday that the Givati Brigade had resumed operations in the northern town of Jabalia and on the outskirts of Gaza City, where it said they were "are dismantling military infrastructures above and below ground, eliminating terrorists, and consolidating operational control".It said civilians were being told to move south for their safety "to mitigate the risk of harm".A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP news agency on Tuesday that the situation was "very dangerous and unbearable" in the city's Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods, where he said "shelling continues intermittently".The agency said Israeli strikes and fire had killed 21 people across Gaza on news agency Wafa reported that three children and their parents were killed when a house in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, was bombed. UN agencies and NGOs have warned of the humanitarian impact of a new offensive."The Israeli plan to intensify military operations in Gaza City will have a horrific humanitarian impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival," they said in a joint statement on Monday."Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer."They also said the areas of the south where displaced residents were expected to move were "overcrowded and ill-equipped to sustain human survival at scale"."Southern hospitals are operating at several times their capacity, and taking on patients from the north would have life-threatening consequences."The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed global food security experts have warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" due to food shortages.
Reuters
20 minutes ago
- Reuters
Switzerland moves to strengthen its competitiveness after US tariffs
ZURICH, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Switzerland is intensifying efforts to strengthen its attractiveness as a business location, its government said on Wednesday, after being hit with some of the highest U.S. tariffs worldwide. Efforts will focus on regulatory relief for Swiss companies, and new rules incurring high costs for businesses could be pushed back, the government said in a statement. U.S. President Donald Trump this month imposed U.S. import tariffs of 39% on Swiss goods, though pharmaceuticals and some other sectors have so far been spared the duties. "(The government) wants to decisively press ahead with its economic policy agenda and is focusing on reducing the regulatory burden on companies," the government said. Geographical diversification and Swiss companies' access to alternative international markets should also be strengthened, the statement said. The new U.S. levies currently affect around 10% of Swiss goods exports, and could have potentially severe consequences for some companies, the government said. Switzerland does not anticipate a recession akin to the global financial crisis or the pandemic, it added.
Telegraph
20 minutes ago
- Telegraph
DWP call handler: ‘We have to approve benefits even if we suspect fraud'
Benefits claimants are being signed off work despite repeatedly failing tests designed to root out bogus applications, a civil servant responsible for vetting thousands of applications has claimed. It comes after one million more working-age Britons were parked on jobless benefits that do not require them to look for employment, official figures show. Britain's welfare bill has continued to spiral out of control despite Labour's vow to tackle the country's worklessness crisis since it came into government last July. The ballooning bill is expected to hit £303bn this year – equivalent to almost a quarter of the Government's total annual budget. Speaking anonymously, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) employee told The Telegraph that applicants who failed a tick-box process for incapacity benefit – paid out when someone's health problems prevent them from working – were able to reapply even after being rejected several times. The benefit, they said, had become a 'pension for life' because claimants on the support do not have to look for work. 'They keep going and going,' the civil servant said. 'I see cases where people have failed checks nine or 10 times, but they stick at it and then they're on the gravy train.' Getting approved for the benefit typically requires a doctor's note, interviews with medical professionals and National Insurance records which are together used to produce a score rating an applicant's capability to work. After several failed tries, they said determined applicants would eventually succeed in getting approved, despite a track record of rejections that would not count against them. 'People will try and try again to get limited capability to work because they've got a bad back. Once they've got it, they treat it as a pension for life.' More people are falling into this category. The increase in the number of people claiming Universal Credit with 'no work requirements' is up from 2.67 million in July 2024, following Labour's landslide victory. Claimants for incapacity benefit, which falls under the health element of Universal Credit, could receive £2,500 more than the national living wage combined with housing benefits and personal independence payments, according to analysis by the Centre for Social Justice. The civil servant said the majority of claimants, who DWP officials refer to as 'customers', were legitimate, but that loopholes in the system were open to abuse. 'People will see a weakness and use it.' Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the architect of the means-tested Universal Credit system, said there were 'no surprises here' in response to the claims, which come after key checks were temporarily removed from the benefits system during the Covid-19 pandemic. 'We are now paying for a stupid policy during Covid that slackened off sanctions and slackened checks. We still don't have face-to-face interviews much. If people can find some way of getting money for nothing, they'll do it,' he said. 'Calls from international numbers' The line between those who take advantage of flaws in the benefits system to make claims that are – on paper – genuine and fraudsters can also be blurred. Even if claims assessors suspect fraud, they must approve benefits unless there is a clear reason why an applicant should not receive the funds, the civil servant said. 'You can't just refuse it just because you think it could be fraudulent. Unless you can pin them on it, you have to give them the money.' One telltale sign a claim could be fraudulent is if it comes from an international dialling code. Once or twice a month, 'people will try to make a new claim from scratch and they are abroad. I say: 'Hang on, you're not even in Britain'. They just hang up and try again'. Last year, a ring of fraudsters were jailed after stealing more than £50m from British taxpayers through the benefits system by submitting thousands of false claims. The case was only uncovered after a lone policeman in Bulgaria told UK authorities that his city was suddenly awash with cash, with criminals 'living like barons', The Telegraph reported last year. 'When you get a call, every number should begin with four-four,' which is the British international dialling code. 'But you will get calls from somewhere else [which is] a fraud. There's absolutely no way they can take calls without definitely being in that country.' Organised crime The civil servant also said they occasionally detected attempts to exploit the benefits system as part of collective efforts to defraud the taxpayer. 'You get the feeling that it's organised [because] every claim is so similar. You see on the notes from previous agents that this person has tried to use a forged licence, or come into the job centre and not been who they say they are, or has children on the claim who don't exist.' One strategy adopted by suspected fraudsters is to bombard government phone lines until they get what they want. 'They call 10 or 20 times in a day and hope someone will be half asleep and just give them the money. Any weakness in the system, they will try and exploit it to the maximum. There's too many people willing to give the money away.' This could be made worse because 'a lot of people worked from home ' and were therefore more difficult for managers to keep an eye on, the civil servant said. They also said some colleagues were able to do their jobs effectively from home. 'The main thing for me is how organised it comes across, [as though] there are people high up behind it. The amount of energy they put into these claims, you'd think they're paying people a percentage,' they said. The civil servant added it was possible to raise 'red flags' on benefits cases – which are fraud reports – but that claims assessors 'never hear the results'. The reports of fraud 'might get binned or they might get acted on, we are never told'. A DWP spokesman said: 'We have zero tolerance for benefit fraud. Last year we saved around £25bn through our robust preventative activity and upfront controls to stop fraudsters from stealing taxpayers' money. 'Our Fraud, Error and Recovery Bill will allow us to go further, saving £1.5bn over the next five years. This forms part of wider government plans that the OBR estimated will save a total of £9.6bn by 2030. 'When we find evidence of fraud, we take immediate action by correcting benefit payments and prosecuting the most serious cases.'
