Exiled from Diego Garcia: The Chagossians & an Anglo-American Base
The exile of the Chagossian people is one of the world’s least known human rights violations. Between 1968 and 1973, the US and UK governments secretly removed the entire Chagossian community from their homes to create a military base on the Chagossians’ largest island, Diego Garcia. The descendants of enslaved Africans and indentured Indians, the Chagossians were left in exile 1,200 miles away, on the western Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles. They received no resettlement assistance and soon were living in profound poverty. Most remain impoverished. Diego Garcia has become a multi-billion-dollar base that has played major roles in US wars in the Middle East. For almost 50 years, Chagossians have struggled to return home. Mostly, they have been ignored. The British and US governments continue to bar them from returning to their homeland. This project seeks to create the first-ever human rights archive documenting the history of the people’s exile, the base on Diego Garcia, and the Chagossians’ struggle to return home.
To read a longer history and learn more about the Chagossians and Diego Garcia, click here or visit www.letusreturnusa.org.