Stephen Allen considers the government’s responsibilities to the Chagossian people
The latest decision in the Chagossian people’s struggle to secure the right of abode in the Chagos Archipelago is R (on the application of Bancoult) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2007] EWCA Civ 498, [2007] All ER (D) 399 (May). The archipelago was incorporated into the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965 and the entire population was exiled to make way for the construction of a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia. R (on the application of Bancoult) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2000] EWHC 413 (Admin), [2000] All ER (D) 1675 (Bancoult 1) held that the BIOT Immigration Ordinance 1971, which denied the Chagossian right of abode, was unlawful because it did not provide for the territory’s “peace, order and good government” as mandated by the BIOT Order 1965 (SI 1965/1920), s 11. The UK government accepted the decision.
However, in 2004, the government enacted the Constitutional and Immigration Orders, which sought to override this right of abode. R (on the application of Bancoult)
