4. How Public Law Has Not Been Able to Provide the Chagossians with a Remedy

The deportation of the population of the Chagos Islands between 1965 and 1973 and their exile into poverty and despair is among the worst acts of colonial misgovernance committed by the United Kingdom in the twentieth century. A succession of legal actions and public pressure has since forced the UK Government to acknowledge and publicly ‘regret’ what it did, but it has nonetheless resisted any real effort to find a resolution.

This chapter examines the attempts, over a period of four decades, to find a legal solution. It traces the extraordinary tactics adopted by UK Government officials from the outset and which continue to this day to cheat this impoverished and vulnerable community of their birthright. This has included deceiving the United Nations, the Public and Chagossians; and recently included withholding information from the courts. It also critically examines judicial decisions and exposes the illogical reasoning of some judges which has led to a failure to give effect to the rights long-enshrined in the Common Law, the clear protections of Magna Carta, and the ‘omna erges’ character of International Law. It highlights the fact that despite frequent criticism and upholding the theoretical illegality of the Exile, the judiciary has failed to create or recognise any remedy for the plight of Chagossians, and has both denied them compensation, and upheld an Order-in-Council which was covertly used in 2004 to in effect overturn an earlier judicial decision and abolish their right of abode.