Since I first met with the Chagossian people in Crawley 17 years ago and became aware of the historic and ongoing injustices that they face, I have tried to play a role in addressing the needs of the community and undoing the wrong done to them sixty years ago.
The expulsion of Chagossians from the islands of the archipelago in the 60s and 70s under both Labour and Conservative Governments was a clear moral wrong, and the discrimination and poverty they have faced in Mauritius where the majority of the population was relocated continues to this day.
Closer to home, towns–such as Crawley–with large Chagossian populations know of the constant struggle Chagossians face in exercising their legal right to come to the UK and the barriers they experience in trying to access support when they arrive.
I know that views in the global Chagossian community on the deal with Mauritius are divided and there will be many who will celebrate its final signing today, considering it a pathway to finally being able to access their homelands. With all my heart I hope that the bright future they see ahead of them is the reality that the deal delivers.
Unfortunately, written questions and other answers from the Foreign Office show that the deal contains none of the legal certainties required to guarantee Chagossians–particularly those resident in the UK–the ability to access the islands or for permanent habitation to be possible.
Instead, it hands these questions over to Mauritius and leaves it to them to decide whether to enable the future the Chagossian people seek or to use the deal for their own ends. In doing so, the UK Government will no longer have any ability to truly make amends for the abuses committed 60 years ago, never have the ability to wipe away the stain it has left on our nation.
There are also many in the Chagossian community who have opposed the deal since the negotiations first began under the last Government and who will be appalled today. I can only express my sympathies.
The most basic right of any people under international law is the principle of the right to self-determination. The fact that differences of opinion exist within the community in no way removes this right, nor does the strategic convenience of the islands, it only makes it all the more important that the question be put to the whole of the community to decide. That is how I have viewed this matter from the start, it is the position I still hold, and I will continue to use all avenues available to push with government at home and overseas.
Peter Lamb MP