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Tamils arrive in UK from Diego Garcia after three-year legal fight over asylum
The Guardian
|December 04, 2024
Dozens of people stranded in hellish conditions for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have arrived in the UK and spoken of their relief that their journey was over.
Lawyers and campaigners hailed the arrival of 47 Sri Lankan Tamils on Monday night as a "big day for justice", with a further eight arriving yesterday from Rwanda, where they had been receiving medical treatment. Twelve children were among them.
They are staying in a hotel on the outskirts of London, where some of the children run around excitedly. All of them seem relaxed about the freezing temperatures and unfamiliar surroundings. "We cannot believe we are finally in the UK," said one man. "We feel we have reached paradise."
Most found themselves in Diego Garcia - one of the Chagos Islands that the UK recently returned to Mauritius - in October 2021 after a boat in which they were travelling, hoping to reach Canada to claim asylum, got into difficulty.
This story is from the December 04, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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