UK PM says deal signed to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Thursday he had signed an agreement to return the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius in return for continued use of a key military base.

"A few moments ago, I signed a deal to secure the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia," Starmer said, after a high court judge ruled the agreement could go ahead.

The archipelago in the Indian Ocean is home to a strategically important naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Starmer says the agreement secures the future of a base that is “right at the foundation of our safety and security at home”.

The signing was delayed for several hours after a UK judge imposed a last-minute injunction blocking the transfer. That was later lifted by another judge.

Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.

But it evicted thousands of Chagos islanders, who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.

Pompe, a Chagos Islands-born British national, said in court documents she had been living in exile since being "forcibly removed from the Chagos Islands by the British authorities between 1967 and 1973".

Others had been forced into destitution in Mauritius, where they had suffered decades of discrimination, she said.

The deal would "jeopardise" the limited the rights she currently enjoyed to visit the islands, including to tend the graves of relatives, she added.

Britain's opposition Conservatives have condemned the accord as "British sovereign territory being given away" in a "bad deal" for the UK.

Pompe and Dugasse applied to the court to impose the injunction after a leaked newspaper report late on Wednesday indicated the government planned to unveil the agreement.

As around 50 protesters gathered outside the court, the two women's lawyer, Philip Rule, alleged the government was acting "unlawfully" and argued there was "significant risk" that Thursday could be last opportunity the court had to hear the case.

But Starmer has said that international legal rulings have put Britain's ownership of the Chagos in doubt and only a deal with Mauritius can guarantee that the military base remains functional.

The base on Diego Garcia is leased to the United States.

It has become one of its key military facilities in the Asia-Pacific region, including being used as a hub for long-range bombers and ships during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.