UN committee 'deeply concerned' by Chagos deal - and calls for ratification to be paused

A UN committee has called on the government not to ratify its treaty on the future of the Chagos Islands - warning it will "perpetuate longstanding violations of the Chagossian people's rights".

The last-minute intervention further increases the pressure on ministers to scrap the deal, which has faced fierce criticism from the Conservatives. The landmark bilateral agreement was signed in May this year and would see the UK hand over control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

It would mean Britain formally gives up sovereignty of the Indian Ocean territory. Politics latest - follow latest But the government would continue to hold on to the vital UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia, by leasing it from Mauritius for 99 years, with the possibility of a 40-year extension.

The agreement would also see the UK pay billions of pounds to Mauritius to do so. However, the UN has strongly criticised the deal for not allowing the Chagossian people to return to their ancestral homelands on Diego Garcia.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed "deep concern" at the terms of the deal, and has warned it will harm Chagossians. Why does the UK currently control the Chagos Islands? The Chagos Islands became legally separated from Mauritius in 1965 as the UK decolonised, and Mauritius became an independent nation three years later.

But the UK continued to hold on to the Chagos Archipelago and those that lived there - mostly people of African and South Asian descent - were forcibly removed to make way for the military base on Diego Garcia. It is these people that the UN committee is concerned about.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Britain's continued separation of the Chagos Islands from Mauritius violated the Chagossian people's right to self-determination and called for the UK to end control over the territory. The UN General Assembly subsequently called for the complete decolonisation of the islands.

Why is the UN against the deal? In a report published on Monday, the UN committee concluded that the terms of the new deal "explicitly prevents the return of the Chagossian people to their ancestral lands in Diego Garcia Island". This is despite the agreement being presented by the UK government as a way to implement the ICJ's ruling, the report states.

It said this means the agreement is "inconsistent with the UN General Assembly resolution". The committee has also concluded that the deal prevents Chagossian people from "exercising their cultural rights and preserving their cultural heritage.