Chagos Islands: UK offers Romania move to stranded migrants

Difficulty workers who have been stranded for ages have been receiving temporary housing in Romania thanks to the UK.

After six weeks, they could be moved to the UK. According to the BBC, other members of the group are being given financial incentives to travel to Sri Lanka where they claim to be under oppression.

Difficulty Tamils became the first people to apply for asylum on Diego Garcia after their motorboat got into trouble in 2021.

The UK state claimed that bringing them to Britain would risk creating a “backdoor movement route” due to the state’s unexpected position, which led to a protracted legal battle.

The state has received requests for comment.

The offer to the migrants, by British officials on the island on Tuesday, came after the UK announced it was handing sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot), which includes Diego Garcia, to Mauritius. The military base, however, will remain on the island.

Last month, the BBC had unmatched exposure to Diego Garcia in order to witness a court hearing to determine whether the party had been unjustly detained in a small, gated camp run by private security firm G4S.

Quickly enough to hear a verdict in this case.

The American government has argued that Biot is not subject to the refugee convention because it is” lawfully different” from the UK despite being run from the Foreign Office in London.

Otherwise, the Biot leadership established a distinct procedure to decide whether the Peoples could be returned to Sri Lanka or been granted global security, which the UN claims is comparable to immigrant status.

There are now 59 Peoples also on Diego Garcia. After self-harm or attempted murder, about eight people have been moved to Rwanda for health maintenance.

Most workers are awaiting decisions regarding their appeals for failures or international protection. In full, eight have been granted global security.

Due to what he described as a “dangerous and untenable position” in the tent amid a number of self-harmous incidents, the top official in charge of the country, Paul Candler, requested that the state provide all of the migrants to the UK over the summer.

Mr. Candler resigned a month later, stating in a letter of resignation that the BBC had obtained that he had found the “migrants situation to be increasingly difficult” and the “personal leadership demands that this has placed on me to be increasingly challenging.”

The UK government’s acting commissioner, Nishi Dholakia, told the camp’s migrants on Tuesday morning that the company had taken the earlier request into account but had instead decided to “make different offers to different individuals.”

” Some people will receive offers to travel to a safe country, and others will receive an offer to return to their home country,” he said.

” I want to assure you that no one will be leaving the island right away as a result of this announcement.” You will all have ample time to consider the offer and its upcoming actions.

Some of the migrants ‘ attorneys from the UK firms Leigh Day and Duncan Lewis argued that it was imperative that the camp be shut down immediately and that the UK government “find a viable long-term solution for all of the individuals and families.”

Migrants on the island and in Rwanda, as well as families living in the camp with children, will be offered a transfer to a” safe center” run by the UN in Romania while the UK government searches for a “durable solution,” according to migrants.

They have been told that they will spend up to six months in Romania’s center.

” Within those six months, the UK will continue to create a long-term solution for you in accordance with international standards. During this period, you have the option to accept any solution. If you do not wish to accept any offers made during those six months, you will be brought to the UK”, letters from the Biot administration, seen by the BBC, say.

One man, currently in Rwanda, who has been offered the move to Romania described it as” a very big relief”. Another migrant from that country described it as the “happiest day in three years.”

For those whose protection claims were rejected and who were not included in the camp’s family units, financial incentives were provided for their resumption. According to a letter to migrants, seen by the BBC, this will include £3, 000, medical insurance for three years, accommodation for up to three years, plus a job or training or education opportunities.

The BBC is aware that those who have not yet exhausted all legal avenues have not yet had their protection claims approved. This week, lawyers for the migrants are scheduled to fly to Diego Garcia to meet their clients.

” I did n’t eat anything from the morning. One of the Tamils who has received treatment for a mental health condition in Rwanda and has since been offered a return to Sri Lanka described her as “very depressed.”

The first Tamils to arrive on Diego Garcia in October 2021 claimed they were fleeing persecution and trying to get asylum in Canada when their boat got in trouble and the Royal Navy saved them. On board, GPS data, diary entries, and maps were used to backup their account.

In the following months, more boats arrived.

Men and women gathered against the six-foot fence and stood outside their tents waving when the BBC visited the camp last month.

The camp consists of white humanitarian tents that have been converted into makeshift communal areas and a church, as well as beige-domed military tents that serve as lodging.

One man lifted a panel above his bed to reveal a nest of rats inside one of the tents, where about five or six men sleep.

” Look, a leak. Another scolded as he yelled out a rat hole as he hurriedly circled his tent, where different rooms were made up of sheets and towels.

In an effort to make them more comfortable, the Tamils have stacked wooden pallets and flattened cardboard boxes on top of which they have been given green military cots to sleep on.

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More on Diego Garcia:

Hand-written signs with the phrases” We are treated like animals in a cage” and” This is a bad place” are displayed in the camp.

Some people made apparent efforts to improve their way of life, including plant beds lined with coconut husks and a dining table made of pallets.

An internal fence was recently constructed to divide the camp between the camp’s single men and their families.

An independent social worker hired by one of the migrants ‘ attorneys described the situation in the camp as an “emerging mental health pandemic” late last year.

Outside the courtroom, men, women and children showed me signs of self-harm.

One woman wept during a court appearance at the camp as she claimed that her daughter had been allegedly assaulted by another migrant in the tent, one of several sexual assault accusations.

In a room directly opposite the island’s police station are three men detained and have been charged or found guilty of a number of crimes committed there.

Representatives from the Red Cross and the United Nations have both previously expressed concerns about the camp’s use and its conditions.

Following a visit late last year, the UN stated that the camp was “manifestly not appropriate” for people to live in long-term and raised particular concerns about the reports of sexual assaults and othermigrant harassment.

Normally, the chapel that housed the court hearing functions as a school. Educational posters were stuck on the walls alongside children’s drawings, one of which depicted a military tent with palm trees in the background.

A short drive away from the camp, there is accommodation for civilian contractors. Shops, bars, restaurants and leisure facilities, such as a bowling alley and cinema, are available to troops and contractors.

The Indian Ocean Territory, which is situated hundreds of miles away from any other population, is regarded by the US as a crucial strategic base.

The island has long been tainted with rumor and mystery, and access to it is severely restricted. The UK government claims that two US rendition flights touched down there in 2002, but that the detainees did not leave the aircrafts.

The BBC was denied access to the island to attend the hearing earlier this year by UK government lawyers, but the Biot Supreme Court upheld the BBC’s request, saying that” justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done.”

Later, the US announced it would obstruct access to the BBC and lawyers representing the migrants, which has control over Diego Garcia’s personnel and resources. Additionally, it stated that it would withhold food, transportation, and lodging from all parties present at the hearing, including the British judge.

Later, restrictions were in place, but the US and British authorities allowed the hearing to proceed. Additional G4S officers were flown over to appoint guards for the BBC and their attorneys and make sure access to the island was restricted.

If they accept Tuesday’s offer, the stranded Tamils could face a 4, 600-mile (7, 500km ) journey to Romania and more time in limbo, or the return to Sri Lanka.

One 12-year-old girl said that since seeing a military aircraft pass over the camp, she had dreamed of becoming a pilot so she could fly away as well. Standing outside the courtroom alongside her parents last month, she said.