A British citizen of Chagossian descent who once served in our Armed Forces has put his appeal directly into the hands of every member of the House of Lords. In a forceful open letter, Misley Mandarin asks peers to summon their conscience, compassion and courage and to throw out the Government’s plan to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius when the issue reaches the Lords on Tuesday.
Mandarin describes the proposal as a fresh act of colonialism, one that would pile a new wrong on top of the historic injustice of his people’s forced exile.
His plea lands just before the second reading of the Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill, the legislation that would put the UK–Mauritius Treaty signed in May 2025 into effect. That treaty would bring British sovereignty over the islands – known together as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) – to an end and clear the way for their transfer to Mauritius.
The roots of the dispute reach back more than half a century. Between 1968 and 1973, the British Government forcibly removed over 1,000 Chagossians from the islands to clear the ground for a US military base on Diego Garcia. Most were shipped to Mauritius and the Seychelles, where many families have endured poverty and discrimination ever since.
Mandarin sets out that history in his own words: “For more than half a century, my people have lived in exile. We were born British, but we were exiled by Britain. Between 1968 and 1973, our parents and grandparents were forcibly removed from our homeland in the Chagos Archipelago to make way for a foreign military base.”
He cautions that the new treaty “does not guarantee British Chagossians any right of return” and “ends our British Overseas Territories citizenship, the very status Parliament granted us in 2022 to right a historic wrong.”
The promised trust fund, he says, offers his community nothing: it “is for Mauritius, not for British Chagossians. Once again, others will speak for us, spend for us, and decide for us.”
Branding the agreement “colonialism under a new name,” Mandarin contends that his people have been refused the democratic rights extended to other British Overseas Territories. “There has been no referendum, no consultation, no consent. When Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands faced decisions about their sovereignty, their people were given a voice. Why do we not deserve the same rights to self-determination and consultation?”
He puts the question still more starkly: “Is our ethnic group not worthy? Is it because we are a small, Black, Christian community with no wealth and no power? Are we not equally entitled to self-determination as the people of other British Overseas Territories?”
Ministers have leaned on an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a UN resolution backing Mauritius’s claim to justify the handover. Mandarin counters that “the ICJ’s opinion is not binding law” and “cannot and should not override the right of a people to determine their own future.”
He draws on a 2023 Human Rights Watch report documenting the deep poverty, discrimination and “emotional devastation” borne by exiled Chagossians – a grief many of them call sagren.
The UK, he argues, is now contradicting its own declared position on the Overseas Territories. Quoting a 2012 Government white paper, he writes: “The UK is committed to defend the Territories and protect their peoples from external threats, ensuring their right of self-determination.”
His response is direct: “Why are we ignored again now? Please, My Lords, stop this shameful treatment and speak up on the Bill.”
“It is not inevitable”
To ministers and peers who insist the treaty is already a settled matter, Mandarin turns to the wording of the agreement itself. “Article 18 of the Treaty makes it clear that it has not entered into force, and will not do so unless and until both the UK and Mauritius have completed their internal legal processes,” he writes.
“Paragraph 7 of the Bill’s Explanatory Notes confirms that this Bill is the UK’s internal requirement. In plain terms, if this Bill does not become law, the Treaty cannot come into force. It is not inevitable, despite what ministers may claim.”
He reminds peers that the constitutional power to halt the treaty sits in their hands, by rejecting the Bill outright: “If the Lords reject the Bill as a whole, you will have prevented the Government from compounding the original injustice of the forced removal of the Chagossians with the new injustice of denying us our right to self-determination.”
Warning that “a vote for the Bill is, in truth, a vote against self-determination,” Mandarin urges peers to “reject the Bill, stop the Treaty, and revisit the 2015 BIOT resettlement plan under British sovereignty,” which he says laid out a “fair and viable path for Chagossians to rebuild their lives in their homeland.”
He closes his appeal with a plea for compassion and justice: “Help us to return home, as is our right. Help us to be recognised not as an inconvenient footnote of empire, but as a British community who have served, suffered, and remained loyal despite everything. We have been exiled long enough.”
He also speaks directly to the Lords Spiritual: “We are a Christian people cast out of our homeland. I ask you to stand with us in fellowship, as you would with any displaced and persecuted community, and to call for compassion, truth, and moral leadership.”
Mandarin’s letter has now reached every member of the House of Lords. The Great British PAC, which backed his recent High Court challenge against the Treaty, said it hopes peers will “listen to the Chagossians themselves, not just to government lawyers.”
The judge in that case is expected to decide this week whether the legal challenge brought together by our campaign should proceed to a full hearing.
Tuesday’s debate is a pivotal moment. Should peers reject the Bill in full, the Treaty cannot be ratified. Under Article 18, it would remain without legal force, leaving the Government to drop it or bring it back in a future session.
For a people once driven from their islands by force, the days ahead may decide whether they are erased a second time – or finally heard.
A message to all Members of the House of Lords, from the British Chagossian community. — Friends of the British Overseas Territories (@BritishOverseas) November 2, 2025