Member

If we pass this Bill and enable the treaty to come into force, then far from alleviating the great crimes we committed between 1968 and 1973, we will greatly compound them. We will create a situation in which, while the Chagossians will continue to exist as a people, we will have taken from them one of the last remaining supports that have underpinned them as a civic people and a small nation. We will make provision for their absorption into the countries where they live, becoming Mauritian citizens, British citizens and Seychelles citizens. The existing foundation for their hopes as a civic nation, the existence of their jurisdiction, will be extinguished.