UK held migrants on island unlawfully, judge rules

A group of more than 60 asylum seekers were unlawfully detained by the UK on the remote island of Diego Garcia, a judge has ruled.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

The asylum seekers, who are Sri Lankan Tamils, arrived at the island in October 2021 after their boat got into distress while en route from Sri Lanka to Canada, where they were hoping to claim asylum.

The Tamils were held for years in a small fenced-off camp on the island, which is the site of a secretive UK-US military base. Earlier this month they were brought to the UK, in a move described by the government as a “one-off due to the exceptional nature of these cases”.

Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Chagos archipelago, a group of more than 60 islands halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia.

The US has been using the area for defence purposes since 1966 and Diego Garcia is a key strategic location for military operations in the Indian Ocean. Britain has offered to give up its sovereignty to the islands as long as it can lease back the military base, but yesterday the new prime minister of Mauritius rejected the terms of the deal.