Defiant Chagossian First Minister aims to increase island population following removal threat
The de facto First Minister of the Chagos Islands, Misley Mandarin, has vowed to bring dozens more people to the archipelago and declared British authorities will have to kill him to remove him, following a secret landing that has escalated a decades-old dispute over sovereignty and the right of return.
Mandarin, accompanied by former Conservative MP and ex-SAS officer Adam Holloway, travelled to the island of Peros Banhos on Monday to establish a permanent settlement. Their arrival is a direct challenge to both the UK government and a pending treaty that would transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius.
British Border Patrol has already issued Mandarin with removal papers, threatening him with three years in prison if he fails to leave the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). In a defiant interview with GB News, Mandarin stated: “I feel liberated here… The prospect of me leaving my island, it won’t happen. I’m staying put.” He added, “You’ll have to kill me if you want to remove me by force.”
A Protest Against a “Surrender Deal”
The landing is a protest against what Mandarin terms the Prime Minister’s “Chagos surrender deal”. In May 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam signed a treaty to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. The deal, announced after political agreement in October 2024, aims to resolve a long-standing international dispute but has faced criticism.
Under the treaty, Mauritius will exercise full sovereignty, while the UK retains rights to operate the vital joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years, paying Mauritius an average of £101 million annually. The UK Foreign Office has stated the agreement is “crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies” and the only way to guarantee the base’s long-term future.
Mandarin, who presents himself as the head of a Chagossian government-in-exile, argues Parliament is being misled. “Government want to give British sovereignty to another country,” he told GB News. He insists Chagossians are the rightful inhabitants and owners, stating his father, a 73-year-old who was forcibly removed, is now joyously back on his homeland. “You can’t break the heart of a 73-year-old man by removing him twice,” Mandarin said.
Historical Grievance and International Condemnation
The current confrontation is rooted in the forced removal of the entire Chagossian population between 1967 and 1973 to make way for the US base on Diego Garcia. The Chagossian diaspora now numbers over 10,000, primarily in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the UK. A Human Rights Watch report from February 2023 described this treatment as a crime against humanity, and the UK government has apologized for the nature of the removal.
The sovereignty dispute intensified in 2019 when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion that the UK’s administration of Chagos was unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible”. The court found the detachment of the archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 was not based on a “free and genuine expression” of the people’s will. The UN General Assembly subsequently adopted a resolution demanding the UK withdraw.
The 2025 UK-Mauritius deal includes provisions for a resettlement program on the outer islands, excluding Diego Garcia, a trust fund for Chagossians, and heritage visits. However, some Chagossians in Britain have criticised the deal for excluding the community from the decision-making process.
Plans for Expansion and Geopolitical Ripples
On the ground, Mandarin and Holloway plan to expand their settlement. Holloway told GB News their immediate goal is to assess resources like water to determine how many more people they can support. “Right now we’ve got five people, six people, seven people. Tomorrow, more people are coming, and ideally we bring 50, 60, 70 people,” he said, describing Mandarin as their “commander”.
Holloway compared the swift official response to their small group with the Channel migrant crisis, calling the situation “bizarre” and “like the world of Transylvania”.
The standoff has drawn international comment. The Mauritius attorney general dismissed the landing as a “publicity stunt”. More notably, US President Donald Trump has criticised the UK’s plan to hand over the islands, calling it a “big mistake” and a sign of “total weakness”, despite his administration’s earlier official approval of the deal. Trump warned the Diego Garcia base may be needed to respond to potential attacks from Iran.
Further complicating the sovereignty issue, the Maldives has also staked a claim to the Chagos Islands, challenging the UK-Mauritius negotiations.
As the diplomatic and legal battles continue, Mandarin frames his protest in personal terms. “My word to Keir Starmer, as a father, I want my children to see their grandparents’s island,” he said. “They want to live on their grandparents’s island as British citizens in British territory.” Meanwhile, the BIOT Administration has launched a new website for historical Chagossian records, a move that underscores the enduring legacy of a displaced community now fighting to return. The UK government has previously made payments to support Chagossian resettlement.
