The Mauritius government says it’s providing a guarantee for all people of Chagossian origin who wish to resettle in the Chagos archipelago to be able to do so.
Chagosians were forced off the island by British troops more than 50 years ago.
“All persons of Chagossian origin, wherever they live in the world, who wish to resettle will be able to do so in accordance with the laws of Mauritius,” the Mauritian prime minister said in a statement.
It comes after the rights watchdog Human Rights Watch accused the UK of crimes against humanity in its refusal to allow a group of islanders to return to the archipelago.
The rights group said reparations should be paid to generations of people affected by the decision to depopulate the remote islands, deep in the Indian Ocean.
In the statement, Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth thanked HRW for its extensive research and said it was “committed to the implementation of an effective plan for resettlement”.
“The government reiterates that it has always maintained that the forced exile of the entire Chagossian community was a terrible wrong and that justice must be done,” he said.
Mr Jugnauth said he had a phone conversation with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following the report, where they reviewed “ongoing negotiations on the exercise of sovereignty” over the islands.
In a report of more than 100 pages, the HRW relied on dozens of testimonies and official documents, accusing the UK and the United States of having committed crimes against humanity by displacing the indigenous population from the disputed archipelago.
That accusation was “categorically” rejected by London.
The HRW report comes as the UK is facing growing international condemnation for holding on to what it calls the “British Indian Ocean Territory,” with the UN’s International Court of Justice ruling that the continuing British occupation of the archipelago is illegal.
