1967- 1968: Chagos Islanders Stranded in Mauritius

On two separate voyages, plantation workers and residents leave the Chagos Islands on the Mauritius, a ship operated by Rogers & Co., to Port Louis, Mauritius’s capital. Many of the passengers are going to Mauritius only temporarily and intend to return to the island. But when they try to return to the Chagos Islands in 1968, they are refused passage and told they will not be permitted to return to their homes. The islanders are thus left stranded in Mauritius, without resettlement assistance or compensation. [Washington Post, 9/9/1975; BBC, 11/3/2000; Los Angeles Times, 11/4/2000; British Royal Courts of Justice, 10/9/2003] Olivier Bancoult later recounts to the BBC how his 11-member family went to Mauritius in 1968 so that his ill sister could see a doctor. After she died, family members tried to return to the islands, but “were told the land had been given to the Americans for a US military base.” [Los Angeles Times, 11/4/2000] The British also purchase the islands’ copra plantations and shut down their medical facilities. [BBC, 11/3/2000] Ships carrying food and medicine to Diego Garcia are turned back. [CBS News, 6/13/2003] These measures are taken with the knowledge of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Conservative successor, Edward Heath. [BBC, 11/3/2000]