The Chagossians Are Being Silenced — And Lord Hermer’s Secrecy Makes It Worse

The fight over the Chagos Islands is not just a matter of maps, treaties, or legal opinions.

At its heart are the Chagossians, a people exiled from their homeland, who have repeatedly made clear that their identity is British and that they wish to remain under British sovereignty.

That reality is consistently ignored by politicians and lawyers more interested in sovereignty negotiations than in self-determination.

Against this backdrop, the decision by Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer to block the release of minutes from a crucial meeting with Mauritius’ chief legal adviser Philippe Sands is outrageous. The minutes from the November 2023 meeting, also attended by Dapo Akande, the UK’s candidate for the International Court of Justice, are being hidden under the pretext of “protecting collective responsibility” and “free and frank advice.” Seven emails and a phone call later, the Attorney General’s Office assured Sands that the details would not see the light of day. Why?

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that what was discussed behind closed doors would be politically explosive. The Chagossians themselves were not at the table. Instead, we are left with the spectacle of British and Mauritian lawyers carving up the future of a people without their consent, and then working to bury the paper trail.

Mauritius argues that Chagos must be ceded as part of “decolonisation.” The ICJ and the UN General Assembly back this line. Yet that is only one side of the story. The other, too often ignored, is that the Chagossians overwhelmingly want to remain British. Their voice should outweigh the lobbying of foreign governments, however loudly those governments shout on the international stage. Decolonisation without the consent of the people concerned is no decolonisation at all.

That is why the Attorney General’s secrecy is indefensible. If the government is discussing a deal to hand the islands to Mauritius, it is doing so over the heads of the very people most affected. Worse, the Labour Government is playing directly into the hands of global powers like China, which has been deepening its influence in the Indian Ocean and would welcome nothing more than a weakened UK–US presence there.

Is this what the Attorney General’s Office is so desperate to conceal, the prospect of a “sovereignty deal” that trades away both the Chagossians’ wishes and Britain’s strategic interests?

Mauritius’ ties with China are deep and growing. The country is heavily indebted to Beijing, which has invested in its infrastructure, secured port access, and steadily extended its reach across the Indian Ocean. If Chagos were ceded, the risk is clear: the islands could become another node in China’s maritime network, positioned astride one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. To make matters worse, Mauritius has signed the Pelindaba Treaty banning nuclear weapons in its waters, a move that would almost certainly block UK and US submarines from servicing in the region, weakening Western naval capability.

To trade away the Chagossians’ wishes, along with Britain’s strategic position, would be an act of reckless short-termism. Worse still, to do so in secret would not simply be cowardly, it would be a betrayal.

The government owes the Chagossians, and the British public, honesty. If ministers are plotting to give away the islands while silencing their rightful inhabitants, that betrayal must be exposed. Secrecy only fuels suspicion that Lord Hermer, Philippe Sands, and others are engaged in manoeuvres that undermine both justice for the Chagossians and Britain’s place in the world.

The Chagos Islands should remain British, because the Chagossians themselves demand it. That truth is the starting point for any just settlement. Until the Labour government accepts it, no amount of legal wrangling or withheld minutes will make this shameful story go away.

The Chagossians MUST be consulted!