“Can we have our communitarian, currency-free island paradise back?”
“No.”
insomnimax_99 on
Exactly.
This isn’t solving the issue. In fact, this is probably making it worse, if anything, because Mauritius is probably less likely to care about the Islanders than the UK. They just want the land.
Mauritius has always treated the islanders pretty terribly – when the islanders were first expelled from the islands, the Mauritian government withheld the money that had been sent as compensation from the UK for a number of years. Lots of the islanders still live in poverty in Mauritius.
Fletcher_Memorial on
The fact that there are people actually defending this is insane. Not to mention this was put forward by previous Tory governments.
If Starmer wants to be successful, he needs to discontinue the Tory tradition of austerity, mass migration and questionable geopolitical decisions.
Curryflurryhurry on
Well, rightly or wrongly, it’s done. All future complaints can be taken up with Mauritius.
test_test_1_2_3 on
The Chagossian’s weren’t much of a consideration in the decision. The islands were handed to Mauritius to alleviate political pressure, it had nothing to do with doing the right thing or some other naive concept when it comes to geo politics and foreign affairs.
I’m sure the Chagossians would rather the UK kept control over the islands rather than a 3rd world country that’s deep in China’s pocket. Obviously their first choice would have been to have control handed back to the Chagossians themselves but that was never on the cards.
Conscious-Ball8373 on
Does anyone know how many actual “Chagossians” there are left? There’s no agreement on how many people were expelled – the British government said they expelled just over 1,000 people in the early 70s, while the Mauritian government counts other people who left before that and didn’t return to arrive at a figure of just over 2,000. Some of those people were already retired when they left. 50-60 years later, how many of them can possibly still be alive?
magneticpyramid on
It’s a fucking fair point! They (and a lot of the commentators) were arguing for self determination, which is exactly what they didn’t get.
AcanthisittaFlaky385 on
I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again. It doesn’t matter.
Chagos Islands are on average 1 meter above sea level. Even being optimistic about cutting CO2, the sea levels will rise above 1M over the next few decades.
8 Comments
How Chagossian input would have been received:
“Can we have our communitarian, currency-free island paradise back?”
“No.”
Exactly.
This isn’t solving the issue. In fact, this is probably making it worse, if anything, because Mauritius is probably less likely to care about the Islanders than the UK. They just want the land.
Mauritius has always treated the islanders pretty terribly – when the islanders were first expelled from the islands, the Mauritian government withheld the money that had been sent as compensation from the UK for a number of years. Lots of the islanders still live in poverty in Mauritius.
The fact that there are people actually defending this is insane. Not to mention this was put forward by previous Tory governments.
If Starmer wants to be successful, he needs to discontinue the Tory tradition of austerity, mass migration and questionable geopolitical decisions.
Well, rightly or wrongly, it’s done. All future complaints can be taken up with Mauritius.
The Chagossian’s weren’t much of a consideration in the decision. The islands were handed to Mauritius to alleviate political pressure, it had nothing to do with doing the right thing or some other naive concept when it comes to geo politics and foreign affairs.
I’m sure the Chagossians would rather the UK kept control over the islands rather than a 3rd world country that’s deep in China’s pocket. Obviously their first choice would have been to have control handed back to the Chagossians themselves but that was never on the cards.
Does anyone know how many actual “Chagossians” there are left? There’s no agreement on how many people were expelled – the British government said they expelled just over 1,000 people in the early 70s, while the Mauritian government counts other people who left before that and didn’t return to arrive at a figure of just over 2,000. Some of those people were already retired when they left. 50-60 years later, how many of them can possibly still be alive?
It’s a fucking fair point! They (and a lot of the commentators) were arguing for self determination, which is exactly what they didn’t get.
I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again. It doesn’t matter.
Chagos Islands are on average 1 meter above sea level. Even being optimistic about cutting CO2, the sea levels will rise above 1M over the next few decades.