Not in the usual sense at least they’re not:
The Chagos Islands have been at the centre of a decades-long sovereignty dispute, with multiple international rulings affirming Mauritius’s claim.
In January 2021, the United Nations’ International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that Britain had no legal sovereignty over the islands, while the International Court of Justice ruled that native Chagossians were unlawfully expelled by the UK to make way for a military air base and that the islands should be handed to Mauritius.
They’re, at best, advisories.
Didn’t a court in the 70s say that Iceland had no right to change the area in which it controlled fishing rights? They could ignore it and so can we.
United Nations’ International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the International Court of Justice are two bodies that can fuck right off. Still, no surprise that 2TK and his Britain-hating Attorney General follow their lead.
Er, if the Chagossians were unlawfully expelled, why don’t the islands get returned to them?
Removing the Chagossians from the Chagos Islands and dumping them on Mauritius was not Britain’s finest hour but it’s absurd to claim decades later that this gives Mauritius any kind of claim over the Chagos Islands. The status of Britain’s other overseas territories is cast into doubt by this cowardly manoeuvering.
If anything, the Chagos Islands should be part of the Maldives, not Mauritius. The Maldives have centuries of history of fishermen using the islands, and the Chagos are part of the island chain.
Surely we’ll end up selling them to the USA in return for a nickel and a dime and the promise that the Chagossians will be offered US citizenship.
Sensible idea dearieme.
Certainly if the UK decides to piss 9 billion around, it should go to the Chagossians, not Mauritius.
– Surely we’ll end up selling them to the USA in return for a nickel and a dime . . .
With the Donald in his current mood I’m not sure he won’t just give the nickel and dime to the Mauritians and say thanks, we now own what we already possess. The yanks get the island, the Mauritians get £9billion and a nickel and a dime for free, and we get to keep the treasonous pug-faced twat as PM ready to sell us out to the next wrong set of noble savages.
Mauritius demands Starmer hand over Chagos Islands even if Trump scuttles deal
Lol. And what will Mauritius do to Starmer if he doesn’t?
Btw I had a quick look at Mauritius news site to see if they had any opinion on this. Looks like ordinary Mauritians don’t give a fuck, their news is mostly about government incompetence and inflation, no mention of the Shagger Isles.
Related: the entire population of Afghanistan fought for the US and must be resettled in Ohio in case they fall into the hands of Afghans.
Yes, the Afghan war ended 4 years ago and America lost.
Only Trump doesn’t give a fuck:
Trump administration canceling flights for nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees, say U.S official, advocate
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.
The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the U.S. as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution because they fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” said VanDiver. “I’ve had to recharge my phone four times already today because so many are calling me.
Lol!
Chagos was never “part of Mauritius”. The islands were grouped together purely for the administrative convenience of the Colonial Office.
Blame some dozy junior in the FCO for not noticing the risk when Mauritius got independence if you like.
Current “Chagosians” appear to be migrants from Sri Lanka. Which is a lot closer than Mauritius.
2TK would give away Gibraltar is some “international court” told him to. Probably to Morocco. (From the Arabic Jebel Tahar or something.)
Philip – 2TK would give away Gibraltar is some “international court” told him to. Probably to Morocco.
That would upset the current Spanish government, who are hoping to be the ones to hand Spain back to African Muslims.
Caudillo Franco, report to the helicopter pool.
Steve
Love that story!
What the fuck have these people been doing for 3 years? Is there some agreement with the Taliban that they’ll let people who supported their enemies out of the country?
From the same article:
Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been brought to the U.S. by former President Joe Biden’s administration since the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Kabul.
With that level of manpower they should have been able to hold the Taliban off for more than a week I’d hazard??
The whole thing sounds like a four ring circus – but what’s interesting is media shills gonna keep on peddling these canards – how long for? Four more years??
@ Steve – Related . . .
Yeeee . . . no. And I cast the first stone as someone who failed to properly label an OT comment yesterday.
Marius
United Nations’ International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the International Court of Justice are two bodies that can fuck right off. Still, no surprise that 2TK and his Britain-hating Attorney General follow their lead.
Spot on – Certainly I’d say Reform should withdraw from ICJ jurisdiction as a declared policy. Easily one of the most dangerous international bodies out there
VP – the story is, all these hundreds of thousands of Afghans were of such vital importance in assisting the West, they ran away the moment the Taliban came back.
Also, they’re in terrible fear of their lives, but thankfully not such terrible fear that they can’t wait a few years for their free flight to free accommodation, courtesy of the infidels they hate.
For those reasons, we should create Little Afghanistans in the foothills of Virginia and also rural Scotland. There is a disgustingly Islamophobic shortage of Sunni madrassas in the Outer Hebrides.
IIRC Mauritius was uninhabited before the West discovered it, so we didn’t need to give it independence and could have kept it as an overseas territory.
UN TRUST TERRITORY
If the UN want to deprive Britain of its territorial rights, they should have sought to declare the Chagos Archipelago a UN Trust Territory.
It is not too late, even now. If Starmer is embarrassed by British territorial possessions, he can still American support for seeking the UN to redesignate the Chagos Islands as a UN Trust Territory administered by Great Britain.
Thousands of tonnes of Nickel lie beneath the Chagos Islands.
Nickel is fast becoming the key strategic metal of the twenty-first century.
The Chagos Islands sit above the important Chagos–Lakshadweep Plateau, a volcanic plateau beneath the Indian Ocean, which is particularly rich in metals, iron, manganese, and especially nickel.
Can there be any doubt that China encouraged their Mauritian friends to pursue this wild claim on the islands because China expected that, having gained territorial rights over Chagos, Mauritius would grant China mining rights within Chagossian territorial waters? This would increase China’s access to nickel.
Furthermore, underwater mining in the area will give China a valid excuse for deploying military naval assets to the area.
This also suggests that the judgement of the International Court of Justice in regard the Chagos Islands is flawed, because insufficient account was taken of the Islands’ strategically important mineral resources. This gives Chagos a wider strategic importance than the ICJ considered.
Comments are closed.