With the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine dominating news headlines around the world, a more subtle development involving another breach of international law appears to have attracted little attention: the UK’s ongoing illegal occupation of the Chagos Archipelago, a group of islands located in India. Ocean about 1300 miles from Mauritius. This new development follows the anticipated introduction of a Chagossian route under the UK Nationality and Borders Bill which would allow direct descendants of original native Chagossians to be entitled to apply for British nationality without the need to pay a request. While this development has been welcomed by some UK-based groups representing Chagossian descendants who have long been stuck in legal limbo regarding their identity and nationality, it has raised concerns about the broader target broad rule of the United Kingdom to retain control over what is legally Mauritian land. To understand the entire saga and the current conflict that exists within the Chagossian community, it is appropriate to go back in history to the 20th century, when the Chagos Archipelago was under the administration of Mauritius, then itself a British colony. The islands remained relatively undisturbed until the 1960s, when the United States and the United Kingdom identified the Archipelago and its largest island, Diego Garcia, as the perfect location for a secret military base in the Indian Ocean. However, there was a major obstacle to the realization of his plans, one that has been well distilled by Jean Houbert: “The Chagos belonged to Mauritius and were inhabited.” To secure its plans, the UK government, in violation of international law, seceded the Chagos administration from Mauritius, threatening Mauritian leaders with the possibility of denying Mauritius independence in the event of disagreement. It also launched an operation between 1967 and 1973, through which it forcibly evicted and relocated the nearly 1,500 inhabitants of the archipelago in Mauritius, Seychelles and the United Kingdom. The UK subsequently passed legislation prohibiting Chagossians from resettling on the islands. This brings us to the current state of the Chagossian Islands and its people. The International Court of Justice, ITLOS and a tribunal administered by the PCA have recognized that the UK’s actions in separating the territory were not based on the free and genuine will of the people, and remain illegal under international law. The plight of the Chagossian people is as distressing as the plight of the island. The Chagossian people who were thrown into Mauritius and the Seychelles, during a time of economic conflict with little support, suffered immensely. To this day, many Chagossian descendants in Mauritius continue to live in poor conditions with little hope of returning to their islands. Chagossian descendants who were resettled in the UK mostly suffered in a different way: many were deprived of the opportunity to have British nationality. and were separated from their families in Mauritius and Seychelles. For them, the new scheme would meet their longstanding demands: British citizenship for all Chagossian descendants, allowing many in the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles the chance of a better life in the UK. While this development has been celebrated by Chagossian groups in the UK, who hold the Mauritian government partly responsible for the islanders’ plight, it does not solve the underlying problem of the UK’s continued illegal colonial occupation of the archipelago. It does not consider the views of Chagossians who want to return to their island, of those who want reparations for their forced relocation and destruction of their lives, of those descendants in Mauritius who continue to live in poor conditions and who cannot afford to even consider relocation to the UK. Nor does he address the fact that the UK’s current occupation of the island is a blatant violation of Mauritius’ sovereignty and remains illegal under international law. Unless the islands’ decolonization process is complete, the status of the Chagossian Islanders will always remain in legal limbo. UK-based Chagossian rights groups may be right when they claim that Chagossian Islanders have lived and continue to live in poor conditions. in Mauritius, but ignore the fact that their condition is the result of the UK’s forced relocation and not the actions of Mauritius, which at the time was a tiny agrarian economy entirely dependent on fluctuating sugar exports. Many Chagossians still intend to return to their island of origin; this bill does not even attempt to address those concerns. With opinions divided and a lack of agreement on the decolonization process, the UK government’s move appears to be an attempt to maintain control over the islands and stamp out internal dissent, rather than resolve the conflict. The underlying generational trauma and the views of some UK-based Chagossian groups cannot help but remind me of a powerful poem by Sujatha Bhatt: “What language has not been the language of the oppressor? What language was really intended to murder someone? torture, after the soul has been severed with the long scythe coming out of the conqueror’s face, the unborn grandchildren come to love that strange language.