Chagossians want sovereignty deal to go ahead, says Mauritius legal adviser
Philippe Sands KC, who has represented Mauritius in its legal battle with the UK since 2010, told a House of Lords committee he wanted to 'knock on the head this idea that all of the Chagossians were not involved' in negotiations over the deal.
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 (CPA Media Pte Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo/PA)
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
18 minutes ago
- BBC News
Asylum sites to be expanded as ministers bid to end hotel use
Large asylum seeker sites like Wethersfield air base in Essex are set to be expanded under plans to end the use of asylum hotels, the BBC can Rachel Reeves pledged to stop using taxpayer-funded hotels by 2029 in her Spending Review, saying this would save £ of the ways the Home Office hopes to achieve this is by moving asylum seekers from hotels into cheaper alternative forms of Keir Starmer pledged to close the Wethersfield asylum facility during last year's election campaign, but the BBC understands that site and another in Huddersfield are among those under consideration for extensions. A Home Office spokesperson said the government was "making strong strides to deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system"."This includes ending the use of hotels, testing new locally-led models, and working closely with local authorities and other departments to ensure a fairer, more efficient approach," they added."Our use of any property or Home Office-owned site will be used in line with the permissions set by planning permissions."The taxpayer cost of asylum hotels has rocketed in recent years, with total accommodation contracts now set to be worth £15.3bn over a 10-year while extending large sites might be cheaper, the move is likely to anger local residents and refugee rights April last year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Wethersfield site couldn't be "seen as either a sustainable solution for housing asylum seekers nor value for money for the taxpayer".Conservative MP Sir James Cleverly, whose Braintree constituency includes Wethersfield, said the existing cap on the number of people living at the facility "was there to protect the safety and security" of constituents, and "those working at and living on the site".Sir James, who became home secretary shortly after the first asylum seekers moved into Wethersfield, said the government plan to potentially expand the site was "disgraceful and shows just how out of touch they are with the concerns of local communities".In March, the High Court found the previous Conservative government's use of Wethersfield to house asylum seekers was unlawful, after three men argued they were living in "prison-like" former RAF base has been housing asylum seekers since 2023. It has a current capacity of 800, but is thought to house closer to 500 people at Home Office contract for the base is held by Clearsprings, whose founder Graham King recently became a billionaire, according to the Sunday Times rich Helen Bamber Foundation, a human rights groups, has previously said that accommodating people at the base causes harm to their physical and mental Dorling, the group's director of policy, told the BBC that Wethersfield "should be closed immediately, not extended".She said: "Housing people, including survivors of torture and trafficking, in an isolated, overcrowded camp reminiscent of an open-air prison, with inadequate healthcare and legal services, is an inhumane way to treat those seeking protection." Savings target A pair of former student accommodation blocks in Huddersfield, acquired by the Home Office last year, could also be buildings, constructed in 2019, have a current capacity of 650 but have never been occupied because of safety extensions to asylum seeker accommodation would be paid for using money earmarked for investment from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, meaning it could be borrowed without falling foul of the chancellor's strict spending Office figures released last month show that as of March, there were about 100,000 asylum seekers in government-funded accommodation, with about 32,000 of those in hopes to end the use of hotels by reducing small boat crossings, speeding up the asylum application process and moving people into alternative the chancellor's Spending Review, there had been some confusion over what that alternative accommodation might secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told BBC Newsnight the government would be "upgrading current facilities, which will include some extensions".But on Thursday, the prime minister's official spokesman refused to comment on whether new accommodation would be built.A senior Home Office source has now confirmed to the BBC that while there were no plans for entirely new accommodation blocks, extensions of current facilities will be built and other existing accommodation such as unused student blocks will be £1bn saving which the chancellor said would come from reducing hotel use has already been taken out of the Home Office Home Office has a new target for how much additional asylum accommodation needs to be created to help achieve the saving, but that exact figure is BBC understands that moving around 14,000 asylum seekers from hotels into other forms of accommodation would likely achieve a saving of £1bn.A senior Home Office source said they were "confident" they could save the required money, but acknowledged that failing to hit the target would force the department to ask Reeves for more funding to avoid having to make cuts number of asylum seekers in hotels is far lower than the record figure in 2023, but has increased since Labour came to power last latest statistics go up to March and therefore don't take into account the knock-on effect of increased small boat crossings in the months since.
Sky News
22 minutes ago
- Sky News
Chancellor dismisses 'hurt feelings' after PM's U-turn on grooming gangs inquiry
The chancellor has refused to say if the government will apologise for dismissing calls for a national public inquiry into grooming gangs after the prime minister U-turned on the matter last night. Rachel Reeves told Sky News Sir Keir Starmer changed his mind after a government-requested audit into the scale of grooming gangs across the country concluded a nationwide probe was necessary. But she said the most important thing is to focus on the victims, not the "hurt feelings" of how others may have been spoken about. Speaking to Sky's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Ms Reeves said one of the reasons the prime minister changed his mind on the need for a statutory public inquiry is to ensure that "people are compelled to give evidence", which local inquiries do not have the power to do. The chancellor was then asked if there will be an apology to people who were criticised by ministers for "talking total nonsense", spreading "misinformation", and were accused of jumping on an extremist "bandwagon". She replied: "What is the most important thing here? It is the victims, and it's not people's hurt feelings about how they have been spoken about." 3:31 What has the PM previously said? The prime minister has been sharply criticised for his comments about people calling for a statutory public inquiry. He said on 6 January: "What I won't tolerate is this discussion and debate based on lies without calling it out. What I won't tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention. "When those politicians sat in government for 14 long years tweeting, talking, but not doing anything about [it]. Now, so desperate for attention that they're amplifying what the far right is saying." But Ms Reeves defended the prime minister's handling of the issue, saying he pledged to implement all 20 recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), criminal convictions are now at "a record high", and that he brought the first convictions for grooming when he served as director of public prosecutions. 3:31 Sir Keir confirmed last night that he will now be ordering a full statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. The full report from Baroness Louise Casey is set to be published on Monday, and the home secretary is expected to make a statement to parliament. He told reporters travelling with him to the G7 summit in Canada: "[Baroness Casey's] position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on. "She has looked at the material... and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. I have read every single word of her report, and I am going to accept her recommendation. That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit. "I asked her to do that job to double check on this; she has done that job for me, and having read her report... I shall now implement her recommendations." What will the report say? The near 200-page report is to be published next week and is expected to warn that white British girls were "institutionally ignored for fear of racism". One person familiar with the report said it details the institutional failures in treating young girls and cites a decade of lost action from the IICSA, set up in 2014 to investigate grooming gangs in Rotherham. The report is also expected to link illegal immigration with the exploitation of young girls. The grooming gang scandal came back into the headlines at the beginning of the year after Elon Musk attacked Sir Keir and safeguarding minister Jess Philips for failing children. The prime minister and Ms Phillips hit back, with Sir Keir citing his record of prosecuting abusers as director of public prosecutions, while Ms Phillips has long been a campaigner against domestic violence.
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Rachel Reeves's tax dilemma is about to get ugly
For close watchers of Britain's economy, last week was dominated by the Government's spending review, stuffed full of numbers of dubious validity, and the political theatre surrounding its delivery in the House of Commons. The event had about it a distinct air of unreality. We all know that the real event will be the budget in Autumn, when the Rachel Reeves will have to confront whatever depressing new economic and financial forecasts are given to her by the Office for Budget Responsibility and to grapple with the horrible reality of surging public debt. Of course, she could react by redefining her fiscal rules to allow more borrowing. After all, this is a well-trodden path. But if she wishes to maintain a shred of fiscal credibility, she will be forced to announce spending cuts or tax increases – or both. Bearing in mind the politics within the Labour Party and public opinion in the country, we are expecting higher taxes. And it is going to be ugly. At least last week the Chancellor could take comfort from the fact that the financial markets were, as expected, unfazed by the spending review. This does not imply that they are unworried by the huge amount of public debt. Quite the opposite. It is simply that there was nothing in the review that was surprising. They know that the big questions about the economy and fiscal policy remain exactly the same as they were beforehand.
