I was proud to serve as Chair of the Chagos All-Party Parliamentary Group from November 2023 to May 2024, having previously served as a Vice Chair.
The Chagos islanders, British citizens, were exiled from their homeland in 1968 by Orders in Council under Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The decision did not come through Parliament. A great injustice was done at that time, and while we cannot turn the clock back, we can start to right those wrongs.
Crawley is home to a large Chagossian community and this is an issue I’ve consistently pursued since even before my election to Parliament in 2010. I’ll continue to pursue this cause with the Government.
In January 2018 I introduced legislation to ensure nationality rights for descendants of the Chagos islanders. My British Indian Ocean Territory (Citizenship) Bill received backing from the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
In March 2022, following years of campaigning, the Government accepted the provisions of an amendment I put down to the Nationality & Borders Bill to ensure those descended from individuals born in the British Indian Ocean Territory be allowed to register as British citizens. This legislation received royal assent in April 2022, with people of Chagossian descent now able to apply to become a British Overseas Territories citizen.
