July 9th, 2024

US blocks British court from British territory

The US government blocked a British court hearing on Diego Garcia due to security concerns over detained migrants. The secretive UK-US military base hosts migrants awaiting resettlement, prompting UN scrutiny.

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US blocks British court from British territory

The US government has prevented a British court hearing from taking place on the British territory of Diego Garcia, citing security concerns related to a group of migrants unlawfully detained on the island. The court session was scheduled to address the issue, but the US withdrew consent for access to the island for lawyers and BBC representatives. Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands, hosts a secretive UK-US military base with restricted access. The UK took control of the islands in 1965, evicting the population for the military base. The US military commander can deny access to areas for security reasons. The exact nature of the security concerns is unclear, but they are related to a planned "site visit" as part of the hearing. The UK government has confirmed rendition flights landed on the territory in 2002. Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamils are currently on the island, awaiting resettlement. The Foreign Office stated that the island is not suitable for migrants to live on and is working to process their protection claims. United Nations representatives have reported conditions on the island amount to arbitrary detention.

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By @defrost - 9 months
Brief history:

    Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a disputed overseas territory of the United Kingdom also claimed by Mauritius. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago.

    Portuguese sailors under Pedro Mascarenhas were the first Europeans to discover the island, finding it uninhabited in 1512. After a 1786 British colony failed, the French began using the island as a leper colony and, starting in 1793, coconut cultivation by enslaved labor. It was transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars. It was one of the "Dependencies" of the British Colony of Mauritius until the Chagos Islands were detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965.
More recently:

    Between 1968 and 1973, the Chagossian (Îlois) inhabitants were forcibly expelled from Diego Garcia by the UK Government so that a joint US/UK military base could be established on the island.

    In 2023, Human Rights Watch condemned the action as a crime against humanity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia
By @moomin - 9 months
In short: UK has no place there, US has no place there. A whole bunch of refugees probably do have a place there but no-one cares about them. Also crimes are probably being committed over and above what I’ve just described.

In other words: situation normal in the Chagos Islands.

By @bell-cot - 9 months
This sounds like a prime example for arguing that our current international legal system is broken. The "territory" in question is a tiny, isolated island - which is a US/UK military base. The people are refugees from a vastly larger island, a thousand-ish miles away. Doubtless the military folks would prefer that civilian authorities quietly take the refugees off their hands, and away from their tiny island base.

But Because Laws, nothing sane is allowed to happen.

And meanwhile, the Britain's just-elected new PM, with a massive majority in the new Parliament, started his legal career as a human rights lawyer.

By @cturner - 9 months
This is a beat-up. The US has a lease on the territory, and it is their prerogative to control access. The British would not have let Chinese lawmakers into Kowloon during the lease. The US would not let Cuban lawmakers into Guantánamo Bay, also leased.
By @fmajid - 9 months
In the 19th Century, the U.K. (and France, the US and others) militarily defeated China and imposed humiliating “unequal treaties” on it. Nowadays the US does the same to the U.K., e.g. an extradition treaty that gives US citizens far more leeway to fight extradition than the other way round. The occupation of Diego Garcia is just another example of the U.K. being America’s poodle.
By @maxglute - 9 months
Always interesting to see how people try to spin Diego Garcia vs PRC in SCS. Chagos/Diego Garcia case another reason why US will never ratify UNCLOS. Reminder there's now actual ITLOS ruling (as in official UN) against UK vs Mauritius. Also reminder that there is no actual formal ruling (as in ITLOS/ICJ) against PRC for SCS - PCA PH vs PRC is not formal UNCLOS case since PRC not subject to optional arbituation clause - hence ITLOS has no formal position on the case. PCA has the legal status of a high school essay. Post ITLOS Chagos ruling, UK (by connection US) is now worse violator of UNCLOS/international law than PRC in SCS... as in actual UN international law, not make believe rules-based-order law. Extra spicy drama now US/UK can't even maintain the rule-based-order wank between friends.
By @cies - 9 months
See how sneaky the language being used is crafted to not put blame on the UK:

"Britain took control of the Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is part, from its then colony, Mauritius, in 1965. It went on to evict its population of more than 1,000 people to make way for the military base." -- BBC

They "took control" (sound quite nice) and "evicted" (probably also the nicest word they could find). The intend is also clear: kick out the natives to make a military base in a place of the world far from their home-island.

See how this language changes when Russia "takes control" of the Donbas. At least Russia claims to step up to rescue the Russian population of Ukraine that lives in a bordering region that Russia controlled not too long ago.

Hence I consider the BBC to be tax paid UK state propaganda, not much better or worse than RT.com in Russia.

By @onemoresoop - 9 months
[flagged] by CIA?
By @karol - 9 months
My guess is, this only scratches the surface of what goes in various military bases and research establishments around the world.
By @jmclnx - 9 months
2036 ? With Climate Change, I doubt that island even support a military base on it then.
By @e-t-u - 9 months
UN decided couple of years ago that Diego Garcia is a part of Mauritius. Check the official UN map.