Member

I do not believe that ending the technical, legal citizenship of British Indian Ocean Territory will lead to people dissolving their innate sense of nationality. Whatever happens to the islands and whoever ends up being settled there, it is inconceivable that it will be treated as a final settlement and that there will be no further disputes, because Chagossians who feel themselves to be citizens of the BIOT will continue to regard themselves, quite properly, as the legal heirs and custodians of that territory. They will continue to press their claim in the hope that a future British Government might take it up on their behalf. They would not be the first or last dispossessed people in history to do so. By the way, they may very well be rewarded in hoping for a change of attitude in a future British Government.