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Monaghan champions Chagos Islands cause

Dr Paul Monaghan
Dr Paul Monaghan

North MP Paul Monaghan will raise the plight of islanders forcibly removed from their homeland more than 40 years ago in a parliamentary debate next week.

Residents of the Chagos Islands – a British-controlled territory in the Indian Ocean – were exiled in the run-up to it being turned into a military base in 1971.

A group, led by Olivier Bancoult, took their case to the UK Supreme Court in the summer and a ruling on the appeal is due.

They were challenging a decision by peers six years ago which dashed their hopes of returning home.

In October 2008, Law Lords overturned previous decisions made by the High Court and Court of Appeal allowing islanders and their descendants to go back.

SNP MP Mr Monaghan, who represents Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, has championed the Chagossians’ cause since his election in May.

He used his maiden speech in the House of Commons to draw parallels between their situation and the Highland clearances in his constituency.

“The treatment the Chagossian people have received from the British Government for the past 50 years has been appalling,” he said.

“It is a disgrace that they are still denied the justice they deserve, and I am delighted to have secured this important debate to challenge this and to fight for the rights of the people of the Chagos Islands to finally be allowed to return to their home, with full human and civil rights.”

Among others to take up the issue is TV presenter Ben Fogle, who said in May he would charter a boat to take islanders back if the UK Government failed to act.

He also led a Chagossian delegation into Downing Street to deliver a petition urging Prime Minister David Cameron to make amends.

Families were forced to leave the islands in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for a United States Air Force base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

The last residents of the British colony were removed in May 1973.

In previous court hearings, the government said the decision to expel about 2,000 of the islanders was made on the basis that it was necessary for peace, order and good government.

Mr Monaghan’s debate will take place in Westminster Hall – the Commons’ second chamber – on Wednesday.