Another Take: The Chagos Islands, the UK and the US

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 have the people of the Chagos Islands not been allowed to go home? The archipelago in the Indian Ocean was home to Chagossians until the 1960s. As decolonization swept the globe, the United Kingdom created one last African colony. Slowly, and then all at once, it forced people to leave their homes, then leased the land to the United States for a military base. Chagossians have been fighting – and sometimes winning – in court to return to their home islands. Now, Human Rights Watch says what the UK and the 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 Tamara Khandaker. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Miranda Lin, and our host, Malika Bilal. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.

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