British Indian Ocean Territory

Baroness Whitaker Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Whitaker]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have for the future of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

[Baroness Whitaker (Lab)]

My Lords, I will not rehearse the tragic story of the exile of the Chagossians again. Numerous Hansard references can do that. I will just remind your Lordships that it was an acknowledged fundamental injustice—acknowledged not least by the present Government.

As the noble Lord, Lord Luce, said in the most recent parliamentary mention on 17 October:

“This remains a blot on our copybook which we must rectify”.—[Official Report, 17/10/13; col. 695.]

I am very pleased that he will speak tonight, and I look forward to the contributions of my friends the noble Lords, and my noble friends. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, added that it was,

“contrary to the core values … in the Commonwealth charter”.—[Official Report, 17/10/13; col. 703]

Their views are shared all round this House and very widely in the media, including the Times and ConservativeHome, so all efforts to put all or part of this injustice right will be widely welcomed.

The Minister will be aware that five years ago an all-party parliamentary group, of which I am a member, was established to press for justice. It will have its 40th meeting on 17 December. I congratulate the chair, my honourable friend Jeremy Corbyn, for his unshakeable determination to restore the rights of the Chagossian people, and our indefatigable co-ordinator, David Snoxell, whose advice has been unfailingly constructive. On 17 December we shall have something to celebrate: the latest step in the progress that has been made since the Foreign Secretary’s announcement 11 months ago that he would take stock of the policy on resettlement. I commend the Minister, Mark Simmonds, for the publication on 19 November of the draft terms of reference for a new feasibility study into the resettlement of the Chagos Islands.

The draft terms are thorough, far-reaching, objective and imaginative. It is a very good start to have a wide range of options and a comprehensive analysis of factors, including environmental, social, economic and legal. I am very pleased to see that the legal section explicitly includes human rights. Clearly the Foreign Office is not frightened, like some, of using these words, part of our core native values. Incidentally, Magna Carta, too, has something to say about wrongful exile. This draft, in fact, implicitly acknowledges the violation of the human rights of the Chagossians. The reasoning for the abolition of the rights of return and abode in 2004 has now largely been discredited by this whole new approach, so they should be restored.

I was particularly taken by the possibility that the British Indian Ocean Territory could become a new model for sustainable development. I remind noble Lords that the UK’s latest marine protected area, in the Pitcairn Islands, will seek to employ the people living there to maintain it. That is surely the right model, rather than depopulating it of its rightful inhabitants.

It was very good to see emphasis on possible resettlement on Diego Garcia. I assume that there must have been some prior consultation with the United States, which is also progress and will be supported everywhere. The commitment to wide consultation, especially with the Chagossians, is also to be commended. Can the noble Baroness assure me that Mauritius will also be consulted?

As to costs, I would demur from the assumption in the draft that these fall solely to the UK. I myself established with Commissioner Piebalgs of the European Union—through the offices of my noble friend Lady Ashton, which is not the only good thing she has done recently—that the UK would be eligible for resettlement funds for the Chagos Islanders, and it is not unrealistic to expect contributions from the international community, the American Government or, modestly, the Commonwealth. Let us not give up before asking.

When we come to the timeframe, let us remember that this most welcome progress has not been rapid. The Foreign Secretary’s commitment to work towards a just solution was first made in March 2010, over three years ago. On the timetable proposed, it looks as if the terms of reference will not be in final form until next year, to be followed by a period for selecting the consultants, so that the study might not be ready until just before the election in 2015. This is a risk. I understand that following the completed study, there will be a policy review into which it will feed. This, of course, will go wider, and include, for instance, renegotiation of the 1966 UK/US agreement, sovereignty and future management of the marine protected area.

There really must be a solution before the election. I urge Her Majesty’s Government to shorten this timetable to get it in well before the election. Can the noble Baroness advise her colleagues that procedures should be simplified where possible so that it takes six not 12 months; that the consultants should be chosen by the quickest appropriate means rather than lengthy tender; and that experts be identified without delay? These must, of course, be drawn from specialists in small island development, familiar with the culture, strengths and history of the Chagossians. I ask for the Minister’s response to these points, if not now, in a letter.

We have come a long way from the lament of the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, the noble Baroness’s predecessor at the Dispatch Box, answering my late noble friend Lord Brockway—Fenner Brockway—on 11 November 1982, that,

“the departure of the Ilois from the island settlements must have been a sad and distressing occasion”.—[Official Report, 11/11/82; col. 411.]

That is a far cry from the present Foreign Secretary’s admirable statement that,

“it is not in our character as a nation to have a foreign policy without a conscience, and neither is it in our interests”.

But it has taken too long to get there and we still need to make up for that.