Derby Chagossian hits out at UK Government over handing sovereignty of island chain to Mauritius

Jean-Francois Nellan has lived in the UK for 20 years and says the Chagossian community were not involved in talks over their ancestral homeland

A Derby-based descendant of the Chagos Islands has hit out after the UK Government chose to hand over sovereignty of the remote nation to Mauritius. Jean-Francois Nellan, aged 40, is among a few hundred Chagossians living in Derby, among a few thousand who call the UK home – having been granted British citizenship in the early 2000s.

This month, the UK Government, which claimed control of the group of isolated 60-island chain in the remote Indian Ocean in 1786, chose to gift sovereignty of the islands to Malaysia after years of negotiations and international court battles Mr Nellan, who lives in Chellaston, has called the UK home for some 20 years, studied at the University of Derby and has worked as an accountant for Rolls-Royce for 10 years.

He said he was “shocked” at the news, claiming to have received no notice before being contacted to potentially talk to the media about the upheaval. Mr Nellan said he is “angry” at the way the deal has been conducted, claiming the Chagossian community were not part of the negotiations over their homeland, from which they were forcibly removed in the 1960s to make way for a US-UK military base and which has been uninhabited since then.

He, whose parents and siblings and much of his extended family live in the UK, claims he and his fellow Chagossians deserve to have been a formal part of the process and to have taken part in a referendum on potential outcomes of their ancestral territory. Mr Nellan told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We need to be involved in that decision. People from the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar (two other British-owned territories) had their say but we are not allowed.

“I am disappointed and angry. There was no consultation from either Government (Conservative or Labour). We had met with Stephen Doughty (Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories) who said he would listen but he did not have any answers. There was no discussion with us and we wanted a referendum.

“Our voice was not heard in the process. What is shocking is that we were told three days before the announcement that the negotiations were still ongoing, and then we find out there is going to be some sort of announcement, but not what.”

He was angered by David Lammy, Foreign Secretary, who said the Government had worked with the Chagossian community, saying on October 3 that “Chagossian interests were at the heart of the agreement”. In response, a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “The government has sought to keep Chagossian communities informed of the status of negotiations.

“The Minister for the Overseas Territories has had two meetings with Chagossian communities, following three meetings with Ministers and Officials under the last government. There are a range of views among Chagossian communities. The agreement supports the interests of Chagossian communities, including the freedom for Mauritius to develop a programme of resettlement on the Chagos Islands other than Diego Garcia, UK funding to support Chagossian communities in Mauritius, and a joint effort to facilitate visits for Chagossians to the Chagos Archipelago.”

The spokesperson claims it was “not appropriate” to provide specific details of the “highly sensitive negotiations beyond state parties” due to the security implications of the military asset. They said all Chagossians would remain eligible for British citizenship and that support for those living in the UK and around the world would not stop, saying: “We deeply regret the historic actions of past governments in the 1960s toward Chagossian communities, and have been clear these were wrong.”

Mr Nellan, was born in Mauritius, but his grandparents lived on Diego Garcia (home to the US-UK military base) and Peros Banhos – two of the largest of the 60-island archipelago, and were part of the population seized from their homes and moved to the Mauritius and the Seychelles. Mr Nellan says neither nation looked to adopt their new habitants and this affected their ability to gain work and build a home, with many said to have lived in effective shanty-towns.

He was able to visit Diego Garcia himself in 2020 and was escorted around his ancestral homeland by military officials and was able to see the remnants of his grandparents’ former home. Mr Nellan says there are a few hundred Chagossians living in Derby, a few hundred more around Manchester and around 5,000 in Crawley, in West Sussex, south of London.

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