A British court on Thursday was reviewing the government’s deal to return the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius after imposing a last-minute block on the accord.
The hearing at London’s High Court followed an urgent pre-dawn application for an injunction which was granted to temporarily put the deal on hold.
Lawyer Philip Rule, representing two Chagossian women Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who made the application, said they acted after a leaked newspaper report that the government planned to announce the deal on Thursday.
As around 50 protesters gathered outside the court, Rule alleged the government was acting “unlawfully” and argued there was “significant risk” that Thursday could be last opportunity for the court had to hear the case.
“We are seeking essentially to maintain the status quo at this stage,” he told the court.
UK media reports said late Wednesday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had been due to sign the deal with Mauritian representatives at a virtual ceremony early Thursday.
The agreement would see Britain hand back the archipelago to Mauritius and pay to lease a key US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island.
But in the injunction, granted at 2:25 am (0125 GMT), Judge Julian Goose said the government should “take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government”.
The government was required to “maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order”, the ruling added.
The base is leased to the United States and has become one of its key military facilities in the Asia-Pacific region, including being used as a hub for long-range bombers and ships during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But Starmer has said that international legal rulings have put Britain’s ownership of the Chagos in doubt and only a deal with Mauritius can guarantee that the base remains functional.
– ‘Sellout’ claims –
Reacting to the ruling, a UK government spokesperson said it did not comment on “ongoing legal cases”.
“The deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security,” the spokesperson told AFP.
The opposition Conservatives, however, described the deal as a “sellout for British interests”.
“You’re seeing British sovereign territory being given away to an ally of China, and billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money being spent for the privilege,” said senior Tory politician Robert Jenrick.
“This was always a bad deal,” he added.
Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.
But it evicted thousands of Chagos islanders who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal battles.
The deal would give Britain a 99-year lease of the base, with the option to extend.
The UK government has not said how much the lease will cost, but has not denied reports that it would be £90 million ($111 million) a year.
Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has said his country would pursue its fight for full sovereignty over the islands if Washington refused to support the return.
