Diego Garcia, the former British navy outpost that is currently leased to the United States military, in the Indian Ocean was the site of the forced removal of several hundred indigenous inhabitants in the 1960s.

The Guardian reports that an appeal of a court ruling that affirmed their right to return to their homes was decided in their favor.

Hundreds of Indian Ocean islanders who were forcibly deported from their homeland by Britain 40 years ago won a battle yesterday which could see them set sail for an emotional return within days.

Although the number of individuals that were removed is relatively small, it is an amazing case that shows how much the British Government continued the sort of policies it developed during the heydey of its empire even during its decline. The judges’ decision left no doubt about the human rights implications of the removals:

The court of appeal in London found the British government guilty of “abuse of power” for attempting to prevent the Chagos Islanders from reclaiming land leased from under their feet by Britain to the US in the 1960s.

Three judges upheld a ruling in the islanders’ favour last year, ordered the government to pay their legal costs and withheld support for an appeal to the House of Lords. Giving his reason for the ruling Lord Justice Sedley wrote: “Few things are more important to a social group than its sense of belonging, not only to each other but to a place. What has sustained peoples in exile, from Babylon onwards, has been the possibility of one day returning home.” The judge added: “The barring of that door, however remote or inaccessible it may be for the present, is an act requiring overwhelming justification.”

This case makes me wonder about other instances of forced removals around the British Empire. Certainly, the larger scale ones are widely known, but I wonder how many other times this sort of thing happened — a very small group of people dislocated to serve some international interest.

The complete article from The Guardian: “Exiled islanders win 40-year battle to return home as judges accuse UK of abuse of power”