‘UK does not take away migrants however we evict British topics!’ Government evicts Chagos islanders who tried to reclaim territory
Keir Starmer‘s threat to arrest a settlement party who have arrived in their Chagos Island homeland to reclaim their territory has been met with fury.
The small group of Chagossians arrived on the island by boat on Tuesday in a final attempt to reclaim their ancestral land before Labour officially surrenders the territory to Mauritius.
Misley Mandarin, first minister of the Chagos government in exile, is leading the group and said that ‘time is critical’ for his people, who were evicted from the British colony more than 50 years ago.
But Mr Mandarin, who was forcibly removed from the island by Britain when he was 14, along with his father Michael, 74, face three years in jail and a fine of £3,000 if they stay on the archipelago.
In a letter served by British patrols, titled a British Indian Ocean Territory Removal Order, they were told: ‘This order shall be carried into effect by the master of the vessel on which you were carried into the Territory.
‘If you breach this Order and return to the Territory you will commit a criminal offence and be liable on conviction for imprisonment for 3 years or a fine of £3,000’.
Former Tory MP Adam Holloway, who has accompanied the Chagossians to the territory, told the Daily Mail: ‘We are not f***ing about here. We can’t be and won’t be evicted’.
Speaking from the Chagos Islands, he said: ‘I don’t know if I need to laugh or despair.
Misley Mandarin, first minister of the Chagos government in exile, arrived on the Chagos Islands on Tuesday
He has led a group of four people who have landed on the island as they look to reclaim the land before Britain surrends it to Mauritius
Former Tory MP Adam Holloway (left), who has accompanied the Chagossians to the territory, told the Daily Mail: ‘We are not f***ing about here. We can’t be and won’t be evicted’
‘It’s absolutely absurd. Brits evicted from British territory by a Portuguese guy who works for the British Indian Ocean Territory.
‘British people are being evicted from their own territory and being kicked out of the base at Diego Garcia when the Government lets in thousands of immigrants.
‘So we don’t remove them but we evict British subjects. It’s absolutely outrageous.
‘We are going to stay here despite the order.’
Mr Mandarin said he was furious with the ‘appaling’ notice.
He told GB News: ‘This is really appalling considering we were exiled from the homeland more than half a century ago.
‘Now I have been served a removal order saying I have to leave the atoll, my homeland.
‘If I don’t I might be in prison for three years or pay a hefty fine of £3,000 which is very appalling to me and I’m very angry about.’
He claimed he will defy Labour and stay on the island no matter their threats and intends to welcome hundreds of fellow Chagossians in the coming months.
Mr Mandarin said he was ‘appalled after being’ handed a removal notice and threatened with three years in prison
Mr Mandarin was forcibly removed from the island by Britain when he was 14, along with his father Michael, 74 (pictured)
The group, which included former Tory MP Adam Holloway, hope to resettle in the island and welcome hundreds more Chagossians
He added: ‘They can make a threat however they want, I’m staying here.
Labour last year transferred UK sovereignty over Chagos to Mauritius in what critics dubbed a ‘betrayal’ of the British people.
It has forced Chagossians to ‘take matters into their own hands’ as they have ‘no desire to see the islands handed over to an ally of China ,’ Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said.
Under the terms of his deal, Britain would pay billions of pounds to lease back the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.
Nigel Farage yesterday said the voyage was ‘truly remarkable’ and called for Labour to make its 15th U-turn by dropping its Chagos deal altogether. He also praised former Tory MP Adam Holloway, who has since joined Reform UK, for accompanying the Chagossians on their journey.
Last month President Donald Trump tore into the deal warning it was an ‘act of great stupidity’, an ‘act of total weakness’ and claimed the site of the Diego Garcia base was being given away ‘for no reason whatsoever’.
He later backed the deal saying it was ‘the best he [Sir Keir Starmer] could make’.
The UK purchased the Chagos Islands for £3m in 1968 but Mauritius argued it was forced to give it away to gain independence from Britain.
A deal, which could cost the taxpayer up to £30bn, was signed on May 22 last year, despite a last-minute legal challenge by two Chagossians.
Mandarin was raised in Mauritius and left to join the British Army as a cook. He was elected First Minister in an independent poll of Chagossians held in December.
Michael Mandarin, speaking in creole, told Conservative Post: ‘We are British Chagossians. We are from this island. And we are here to stay.
Should the UK fight harder to protect the rights and homeland of the exiled Chagossians?
‘Mauritius was not easy. There were no jobs.
‘We had to sleep on a neighbour’s floor because we did not have a house of our own.
‘So I say to every Chagossian, return back to your homeland and live the way we used to live before the exile, and work together and make a better future
It comes as the Mail revealed a close friend of Sir Keir Starmer shared an £8million pot for his work in negotiating the ‘surrender’ deal.
Philippe Sands KC, who describes himself as a ‘great friend’ of the Prime Minister, pocketed his share of the sum while acting as chief legal counsel to Mauritius between 2010 and 2024.
In that time he secured the controversial deal which will see Britain hand back sovereignty of the strategically important archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, and lease the Diego Garcia military base for 99 years – at an average cost of £101m a year.
Professor Sands, a leading international human rights lawyer who is also close with Attorney General Lord Hermer, led a series of legal teams who were almost exclusively tasked with fighting for the cession of the island to Mauritius.
Together they were allocated at least £8,300,000 from the Mauritian state budget, official documents show.
While the exact figure Professor Sands took home is unknown, his role as chief counsel will have seen him earn the largest cut, according to one international lawyer, who said a large bonus could also be paid on the deal’s completion.
Asked how much he was paid, Sands told a House of Lords Committee he ‘did not know’ but admitted he was ‘remunerated, as I am for almost all my cases. It was not done pro bono’.
Pressure has mounted on Sir Keir Starmer to ditch his ‘terrible’ plan of surrendering the Chagos Islands amid mounting opposition from his own Labour MPs. Pictured: Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands
It was also revealed that the Prime Minister ‘wobbled’ over the Chagos deal amid panic over the £35billion price tag and doubts over the legal position.
Private concerns were revealed by former ambassador to Washington Lord Mandelson, who was forced to resign in September over links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In an interview with The Times, Lord Mandelson he ‘became aware of a serious wobble in London over the agreement and its sellability to the British public’.
‘That was to do with the price tag and whether we had the total legal obligation to enter the deal and whether the original legal case made for the agreement in Whitehall was as watertight as was claimed,’ the peer said.
‘So on the one hand I faced a sceptical US administration and then at another point a wobbly government of my own behind me.’
