HOW STARMER'S CHAGOS FIASCO SENT A LONDON COUNCIL INTO MELTDOWN

Il Paul Arlapen had with him when he arrived at Heathrow Airport with his heavily pregnant wife and three-year-old son was a couple of suitcases of clothes.

- Rachael Burford and Claudia Cockerell

Arlapen, 32, grew up in Mauritius, though his family are from the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean which was the last British colony until earlier this year.

Arlapen's great grandparents were expelled from the islands in the 1960s, along with the entire Chagossian population, to make way for a US military base. He is part of a wave of Chagossians who have exercised their right to British citizenship and moved to the UK.

Yet the arrival of hundreds of Chagossians is adding to the pressure on Hillingdon council, the west London borough responsible for the area surrounding Heathrow. Since July 2024, the authority has registered 621 individuals across 168 families of Chagossian descent arriving at the airport. Last week alone, there were more than 150 arrivals.

For councillor Steve Tuckwell, who is responsible for housing in the Tory-run borough, the situation has become critical. He describes Hillingdon as a diverse, welcoming borough but says "we are at breaking point".

"Councils across London and the country are facing problems funding temporary accommodation and social care," Tuckwell explains. "But our pressure is slightly more unique because of Heathrow Airport. We are the local authority, so when these people arrive they become our responsibility."

The financial burden is substantial for a council already forced to make £34 million in cuts to its budget this year. Hillingdon now expects to spend £2 million this year alone on its legal duty to house arriving Chagossian families - money the authority says it doesn't have. This comes on top of the £5 million the council already pays out to support asylum seekers placed in the borough by the Home Office.