A prosecutor has upheld the unlawful detention of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees for years on Diego Garcia’s distant American territory.
Difficulty Tamils became the first people to seek hospital on the Indian Ocean island, home to a mysterious US-US military base, in 2021.
They were held for years in a small fenced-off camp, before being brought to the UK earlier this month in what the government described as a “one-off” move in the interests of their welfare.
A spokesperson for the UK authorities said it was” properly considering” Monday’s decision.
Diego Garcia was not a” appropriate long-term area for workers,” the spokesperson continued, adding that the state “inherited a deeply troubling circumstance that remained unsettled under the previous administration for years.”
Lawyer Simon Robinson with UK business Duncan Lewis, which is representing some of the workers, said “questions need to be answered about how, in the 21st century, this was able to transpire”.
The ruling follows a landmark hearing held in a converted chapel on the island in September. The BBC gained unprecedented access to the island and the migrant camp there to cover the proceedings.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, or British Indian Ocean Territory ( Biot ), an area described as being” constitutionally distinct” from the UK. A director with a foreign business office office oversees it from London.
In their time on the island, the Tamils, including 16 kids, were housed in defense houses in the enclosed camp, which was guarded at all times by personal security firm G4S.
Peoples have compared their time on the island to a “hell” experience.
“It’s like an open prison – we were not allowed to go outside, we were just living in a fence and in a tent,” one woman told the BBC after being brought to the UK with her husband and two children this month.
The jury witnessed animals nesting above military mattresses that the workers were given as beds during a page attend to the station in September.
In response to the situations in the station, there were many self-harm and suicide attempts, and after that, some people were taken to Rwanda for medical care.
Additionally, there were instances of sexual assault and abuse, including allegations against kids, committed against children in the tent.
In her decision on Monday, acting acting prosecutor of the Biot Supreme Court, Margaret Obi, stated that the tent was “in all but brand” and “had been a prison from the beginning.”
She discovered that one former deputy director “appeared to have only a passing understanding of the fundamental significance of liberty.”
The decision, according to Tom Short, a solicitor with Leigh Day, was” not only a justification of our customers ‘ freedom but also a defeat for the rule of law in the British Overseas Territories.”
” This affront to essential right should never have occurred, and in due course this travesty of management must be fully examined,” he continued.
The tent has now ended, but Diego Garcia’s remains a suspect in the form of an inspection and two other suspects, according to the BBC.
Britain took control of the Chagos Islands from its next town, Mauritius, in 1965 and went on to remove its population of more than 1, 000 people to make means for the bottom.
The judgement comes after the UK agreed earlier this year to hand over the islands to Mauritius in a historic move.
Diego Garcia will continue to serve as a UK-US military base under the agreement, but Mauritius will be in charge of any pending immigrant immigrants.