UN court rejects UK claim to Chagos Islands in favour of Mauritius | The Guardian

The UK has been urged to end its “unlawful occupation” of the Chagos Islands by the prime minister of Mauritius, after Britain’s claim to sovereignty over the strategically important islands in the Indian Ocean was comprehensively rejected by the United Nation’s special international maritime court in Hamburg.

The court ruling provides a major headache as the islands represent the UK’s main strategic asset in the Indian Ocean, but a refusal to comply with the judgment will damage Britain’s international reputation for compliance with the law.

The UK retained possession of the Chagos archipelago after Mauritius gained independence in 1968, in effective paying Mauritius more than £4m for the islands. In the early 70s, between 1,500 and 2,000 islanders were forcibly deported so that the largest island, Diego Garcia, could be leased to the US to use as an airbase. They have never been allowed to return. Mauritius has promised to let the US troops remain on a lengthy lease.

The rejection of the UK claim was made by the special chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which ruled that Mauritius was right to claim the Chagos Islands in line with previous international court rulings.

The judgment also determined that the Maldives could not avoid negotiating its maritime boundaries with Mauritius by saying there was a valid live dispute over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands between the UK and Mauritius.....https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/28/un-court-rejects-uk-claim-to-chagos-islands-in-favour-of-mauritius

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