In the 70’s Britain thought it would be a good idea to give the island of Diego Garcia to the Americans to use a military missile base. It is a beautiful coral island in the middle of the indian ocean.

There were nearly 2,000 people living there, descendants of African slaves and Indian plantation workers, the Chagos islanders had lived there for over 200 years.

But the British didn’t see that as a problem. They simply moved all the inhabitants 1,200 miles away to Mauritius and the Seychelles. The islanders say one of the forces used to get them out was fear when British officials ordered their pets to be exterminated. Almost 1000 pets were gassed with exhaust fumes from American military vehicles. “They put the dogs in a furnace where the people worked,” says Lizette Tallatte, now in her 60s,” … and when their dogs were taken away in front of them, our children screamed and cried.”

They weren’t allowed to take anything with them except a suitcase of their clothes. The ships were small and they could take nothing else, no furniture, nothing. Arriving in the Seychelles, they were marched up the hill to a prison where they were held until they were transported to Mauritius. There, they were dumped on the docks. In the first months of their exile, as they fought to survive, suicides and child deaths were common.

The people of Diego Garcia say they left paradise and landed in hell when they were dumped here in the urban slums of Mauritius. They had brought no possessions and as islanders who had lived off fishing and farming they had no real professional skills. No one helped them resettle or pay for the homes they lost. They were forced to become squatters in a foreign land and are still living in shacks.

Diego Garcia was first settled in the late 18th century. A gentle creole nation with thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a prison, a railway, docks, a copra plantation. Watching a film shot by missionaries in the 1960s, one can understand why every Chagos islander calls it paradise; there is a grainy sequence where the islanders’ beloved dogs are swimming in the sheltered, palm-fringed lagoon, catching fish.

Today it is one of the biggest American bases in the world. There are now more than 2,000 troops, anchorage for 30 warships, a nuclear dump, a satellite spy station, shopping malls, bars and a golf course. “Camp Justice” the Americans call it. See the official site of the United States Navy Support Facility, Diego Garcia

45 Diego Garcians arrived at Gatwick last Friday, but the British High Court threw out their appeal on tuesday saying the county council was not responsible for housing or caring for the exiled islanders.

All of the islanders want to return to Diego Garcia, whether they were born there or in exile. They have come to Britain as a last resort, to put more pressure on the British Government and to seek justice.

“The British government have a responsibility towards us?they took our homeland away. The islanders are coming here because there was nowhere else to go. They want to make a living. We have to keep up our fight to go back to Diego Garcia.” ~ Janet Esparon

I am absolutely disgusted with how these people are still been treated. Diego Garcia is their only home, but they will never be allowed to return. It is England’s doing and responsibility to care for them now. Shame on you England! Sort it out.