The fate of the Chagos Islands is now headed for the High Court of Justice. Louis Michel Mandarin and Louis Misley Mandarin, both Chagossians and British citizens, have brought a landmark Judicial Review aimed at stopping the UK Government from signing away sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius until the Chagossian people have been lawfully consulted.
The claim is backed by the Great British PAC and led by barrister James Tumbridge and KC Philip Rule. It takes aim at the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs for shutting Chagossians out of a process that bears directly on their land, their identity and their future.
A Legal and Democratic Crisis
The case turns on a striking concession. In official correspondence dated March 2025, the UK Government stated:
“There was no formal consultation in respect of the sovereignty negotiations, and nor was there any obligation to have one.”
The claimants say this is precisely the problem. Under the Equality Act 2010 and long-settled principles of administrative fairness, the Government is legally bound to consult communities, and recognised ethnic groups in particular, wherever their rights and futures are directly at stake.
Ministers have already conceded that the Chagossians are “its own people.” Set against their historic forced removal from the islands and their continued exclusion from the decisions being taken about those islands, that admission, the claim argues, leaves the UK in clear breach of its own legal duties.
Why This Matters Now
Any agreement reached behind closed doors, without the Chagossians at the table, is in the claimants’ view not merely unjust but unlawful. The challenge points to failures under several heads of law:
- The Public Sector Equality Duty (s.149 Equality Act 2010);
- The common law duty to consult (the Sedley/Gunning principles);
- International law, including self-determination rights and protections under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The claim also leans on established precedent. In R (Bancoult) [2001] QB 1067, the courts already held that the removal of an entire population from its homeland could not be justified under colonial-era powers of governance.
For the claimants, the principle is simple. “We are not Mauritian. We are Chagossian. The Government cannot lawfully decide our fate without us,” said Louis Michel Mandarin, whose father is a co-claimant and was born on the Chagos Islands.
A Call to Suspend Any Deal
The Great British PAC is urging the Government to act immediately and to:
- Suspend the parliamentary process pending the outcome of this case;
- Consult the people before any ratification or agreement concerning Chagos sovereignty;
- Undertake full and lawful consultation with the Chagossian people;
- Recognise that any international treaty affecting a recognised ethnic group must meet standards of equality, consent and transparency.
A hearing is expected in July 2025. In the meantime, the claimants are calling on Members of Parliament to resist any pressure to ratify a sovereignty transfer, warning that to do so would deepen decades of injustice and expose the UK to fresh legal and moral scrutiny.
The cost of bringing this Judicial Review has already been met in full by the Great British PAC and its Chairman, Ben Habib. If you would like to help underwrite the claimants’ ongoing legal costs, you can donate at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/savechagos.