Chagossians: Descendants of British subjects fight for British citizenship

Dominique Elysee was born in March 1968 after his single-mother, Marie Carmen travelled to Mauritius from the Chagos Islands to give birth - a common practice for indigenous Chagossians to travel from their tropical archipelago for work purposes, buying supplies or receiving healthcare. But after Dominique’s birth, Marie Carmen was banned from returning to her home of Peros Banhos, one of the 65-islands. From the mid-60s onwards, those Chagossians like her in Mauritius and Seychelles were refused passage back to their homeland, often told by shipping companies the islands were closed or sold.

Between 1967-1973, roughly 2,000 Chagossians were displaced from their homeland to Mauritius and Seychelles, in a secret process to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.

In 1965, the Chagos Archipelago was separated from Mauritius - while Mauritius was a British colony. The UK bought it for £3m, forming the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

Mauritius says it was forced to give up the Chagos in exchange for independence, which it got in 1968.

The UK will “cede the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer needed for defence purposes”.

In exile, the community were pushed into extreme poverty, never being allowed to resettle on the Chagos.

In Mauritius, Dominique grew up with his two older sisters Andrea and Claire and was raised by his single mother, who "was struggling” as a housemaid. "She was working at 3-4 places at the same time. She worked at 7 am in the morning and came back at 7 pm in the evening”. 

As Dominique grew up, he later worked in hospitality as a chef and barman in Mauritius, before moving to Ireland to study IT. From 2007, he spent around six years there, supporting his studies with part-time work as a chef. 

Afterwards, Dominique followed his mother to the UK, who had already resettled in the town of Crawley, southern England, where most of the 3,000 Chagossians live.

Like her, Dominique believed he would gain British citizenship.

But it did not happen.

Dominique’s journey

Since 2012, Dominique’s life has been held up after moving to the UK and applying for a British passport. “After six or seven months, it was refused,” he told TRT World.

Dominique says he has made four unsuccessful applications for a British passport, with financial implications for his retired mother.

“My mum is 82 and I can’t work. I depend on my 82-year-old mother. It’s ridiculous,” said 53-year-old Dominique.“You can’t have a bank account. You don’t have any national insurance number. You can’t put (get) life insurance because you’re not working.”

After his sisters and mother gained citizenship “straight away,” Dominique says he complied with the authorities’ request to provide supporting documents for his application - like his grandparent’s marriage certificate with details about where they were born and marriage-year. “It took about three years to find out all this paperwork. Then they say oh no by descent you are not eligible,” he said.

In 2002, the British Overseas Territories (BOTs) Act granted British citizenship to Chagossians born between 1969-1982.

But Dominique was born in 1968 and also missed out on the qualification for automatic British citizenship by six days when Mauritius gained Independence.

In July 2018, he challenged this, taking the UK government to the High Court in a bid to secure British citizenship. However, the High Court ruled in favour of the government, with the “injustice” leaving Dominique frustrated.“The law has to be changed so unfortunately, I will be ineligible for the citizenship”.

Today he spends his time helping the community with translations and lives with his mother.

He says Chagossian-descendants face similar situations, causing unease amongst the community .“Some of them can be deported at any time. You live in a trauma that if (you) hear the door, someone knocking on the door, you don’t know if there is a problem coming for you.”

After some Chagossians gained citizenship, resettling in the UK, filmmaker S. Jean-Noel Pierre told TRT World: "some families were divided”. He documented the generational impact on the community in the film 'Absolutely Must Go’. Pierre says Ivo Bancoult who features, moved to the UK with one child under 18 years old, however, his other child over 18 "had to stay in Mauritius”. After his experiences with the community, Pierre likens the authorities' treatment to a “cycle that doesn’t finish. They are just waiting for the generations to pass away.” 

The bid for UK citizenship

“While the (BOT) Act 2002 allows for the possibility of UK citizenship to Chagossians born in the territory under British colony as well as its transmission to Chagos islanders’ second-generation descendants born in exile, there is a financial reality that has been overlooked.” 

Roopanand Mahadew, Senior Lecturer at the Law Department of the University of Mauritius, specialising in International human rights law and Public international law, told TRT World. “The process of applying for citizenship, which also includes a period of stay in the UK at their own expenses, is too costly for almost every Chagossian who anyway finds themselves in dire situations in Mauritius even today. Legislations, court decisions and political negotiations did not cater for the fact that only providing them for this right to citizenship without effectively allowing them to exercise it through financial assistance, was almost like a deceitful ploy from the former colonizer”.

Dominique puts the cost of his push for citizenship at over £6000.

Rosy Leveque, a Chagossian-descendant who campaigns for the community’s rights with BIOT Citizens, said resettlement in the UK is arduous. “They have to go through the routes of getting tourist visas, going through immigration, paying really high fees with lawyers,” she told TRT World. 

Mahadew notes the BOT Act “has significant hurdles even for those lucky few who had the financial means to apply for citizenship”, favouring descendants “from a formal marriage relationship whereas the reality of that time was children being born out of marriage, thus not allowing an unmarried British Chagossian man to pass citizenship to his children.”

In 2001, the UK government argued extending eligibility to subsequent Chagossian generations would privilege them over other BOT citizens unable to pass on their citizenship by descent to future generations born outside the BOTs.

"You have many other second-generations in the UK, who have been to school and have a level of education who want to go to the university, they can’t because they do not have any citizenship - any papers,” Sabrina Jean, Chair of Chagos Refugee Group UK, a rights group, told TRT World. “We would like the UK government to understand it is time to do the right thing for the Chagossian community.”

This September, the community mobilised outside the UK Parliament, calling for changes in legislation.

“To remedy this historical injustice”, Henry Smith the Conservative MP for Crawley told the House of Commons he will introduce an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill at report stage expected on 4 November. If successful, the amendment would offer a waiver to the cost of naturalisation for around 1000 people. 

“Many of those descendants are the grandchildren of people who were British subjects in the (BIOT) and now find themselves with, in effect, no rights to British citizenship, despite the fact that it was no fault of their own that their grandparents and relatives were forcibly exiled from their home territory” 

If the amendment is successful, Dominique hopes to work as a chef "to give" Marie Carmen a better life, after all her support.

But his mother, like other first-generation Chagossians, dreams of returning to the land of her birth.