LONDON (AP) 鈥 Bernadette Dugasse was just a toddler when her family was forced to leave her birthplace. She didn鈥檛 get a chance to return until she was a grandmother.
Dugasse, 68, has spent most of her life in the Seychelles and the U.K., wondering what it would be like to set foot on the tropical island of Diego Garcia, part of the remote cluster of atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean called the
Like hundreds of others native to the islands, Dugasse was kicked out of her homeland more than half a century ago when the British and U.S. governments decided to build an important military base there.
After years of fighting for the right to go home, Dugasse and other displaced islanders watched in despair Thursday as the U.K. government announced it was
While political leaders spoke about international security and geopolitics, the deal meant only one thing for Chagossians: That the prospect of ever going back to live in their homeland now seems more out of reach than ever.
鈥淲e are the natives. We belong there,鈥 said Dugasse, who has reluctantly settled in Crawley, a town south of London. 鈥淚t made me feel enraged because I want to go home.鈥
Entire population evicted
Dugasse was born on the Chagos Islands, which had been under the administration of Mauritius, a former British colony, until 1965, when Britain split them away from Mauritius.
Mauritius gained independence in 1968, but the Chagos remained under British control and were named the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Dugasse was barely 2 years old when her family was deported to the Seychelles in 1958 after her father, a laborer, allegedly broke a work contract. They were never allowed back. Throughout the 1960s, many other islanders who thought they were leaving temporarily 鈥 for a holiday, or medical treatment — would be told they cannot return to the Chagos.
It turned out that Britain was evicting the entire population of the Chago Islands — about 1,500 people descended from African slaves and plantation workers 鈥- so the U.S. military could build a base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
By 1973, all Indigenous Chagossians were forced to leave. Thousands of islanders and their descendants are now spread around the world, most living in Mauritius, the U.K. and Seychelles. Most want to return home.
Britain鈥檚 government has acknowledged that its removal of islanders was wrong, and has granted many citizenship and set aside some funds to improve their lives. But it continues to bar Chagossians from returning and living in their homeland, citing defense and security concerns and 鈥渃ost to the British taxpayer.鈥
Although the British government this week finalized a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos to Mauritius, ending a long contested colonial legacy, there is no upside for Chagossians.
Dugasse and other islanders say they were completely excluded from political negotiations, and that Mauritius鈥 government is unlikely to grant them any right to return. Under the deal, which still needs Parliament’s approval, Britain will lease back the Diego Garcia military base for at least 99 years. That means the island will be off-limits for the foreseeable feature.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have a Mauritian passport. I don鈥檛 want to affiliate myself with Mauritius,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e have our own culture. We have our own identity. We are unique Indigenous people.鈥
鈥楨very day I cried鈥
Dugasse and another Diego Garcia native, Bertrice Pompe, against the British government over the deal to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritian control. They only managed to halt the signing of the deal by a few hours Thursday.
Pompe said it was a 鈥渧ery sad day鈥 but she wasn鈥檛 giving up.
鈥淭he rights we鈥檙e asking for now, we鈥檝e been fighting for for 60 years,鈥 Pompe said outside a London courthouse. 鈥淢auritius is not going to give that to us. So we need to keep fighting with the British government to listen to us.鈥
Human Rights Watch and other groups have urged Britain鈥檚 government to recognize the Chagossians鈥 right to return home, calling its failure to do so a 鈥渃ontinuing colonial crime against humanity.”
Dugasse 鈥 who received British citizenship but said she got no other compensation 鈥 has been allowed back to Diego Garcia just twice in recent years. Both times the visits were only possible with special permission from the U.K. government.
She described the island as a 鈥渕ini-America,鈥 populated by American service members and Filipino staffers. She visited the church where her parents were married and where she was baptized, but found her village cemetery and school in ruins.
And when she collected seashells and white sand from the beach, officials told her she wasn鈥檛 allowed to bring those home.
鈥淚 told them no 鈥 (the shells and the sand) are mine, not yours,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e were allowed there for only nine days, and every day I cried.鈥
Dugasse said her elderly mother, who lives in the Seychelles, would like to die on Diego Garcia. She doesn’t think that’s possible 鈥 and she is pessimistic that any of her children or grandchildren will get a chance to see where their family came from.
鈥淎re we Chagossians always going to be nomads, going from place to place?” she asked. “Most of the natives are dying. What will happen? It鈥檚 time for us to set foot home.鈥
