The Chagossian Exodus: A Lost Paradise

Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on February 27, 2023. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.

Why haven’t the people of the Chagos Islands been allowed to go home? The archipelago in the Indian Ocean was home to Chagossians until the 1960s. As decolonization swept the globe, the UK created one last African colony. Slowly and then all at once, it forced people to leave their homes, then leased the land to the US for a military base. Chagossians have been fighting – and sometimes winning – in court to return to their home islands, and now, Human Rights Watch says that what the UK and US did amounts to crimes against humanity. 

In this episode:

• Clive Baldwin (@cliveabaldwin), Senior Legal Advisor, Human Rights Watch

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Chloe K. Li and Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Miranda Lin, and our host Malika Bilal. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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