Chagos Archipelago

Baroness Whitaker Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

Can the Minister tell us—

[Baroness Whitaker]

My Lords—

[Lord Shutt of Greetland]

I think we will hear from a Conservative Member first.

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

I know of no specific threat in relation to resettlement. All sorts of other problems were studied in a feasibility study some years ago and the whole prospect of resettlement was found to be precarious. However, the particular issue of rising sea level is not one on which we have any detailed evidence.

[Baroness Whitaker]

The Minister mentioned the general concept of an MPA. Does he acknowledge that in the general run of MPAs, the people who normally live there actually live there, by which I mean the Galapagos and the most recent MPA, made by President Bush, around western Hawaii? Would it not be quite normal for the Chagossians to be living in the MPA?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

As I have explained, the Chagossians are not living there because they have not resettled. That is a separate issue which needs to be looked at and we are studying. The issue of the MPA, which is a vast area, immediately affects only the licensed fishermen whose problems have been very carefully addressed. That is the position, and these are two separate issues. I am sorry that I cannot help the noble Baroness in bringing them together today.