Great Britain finally returning Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius

(Patria) - Great Britain has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending a years-long dispute over Britain's last African colony.

Great Britain expelled the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity, reports Euronews.rs.

Britain retained possession of the territory and called it the British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT, after Mauritius gained independence in 1968, writes The Guardian.

The agreement followed rounds of negotiations that began in 2022, after the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) recognized Mauritius' arguments for sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago in 2019 and 2021.

It was determined that Great Britain had illegally detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius before granting it independence in 1968.

Great Britain initially ignored UN votes and court rulings demanding the return of the islands, emphasizing that the ICJ's ruling was merely an "advisory opinion".