Forced into exile: the Chagossians scattered in Mauritius and Britain

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More than half a century after all of its inhabitants were forced out, the UK is relinquishing sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, a remote but strategically important Indian Ocean archipelago. After years of protest over a displacement described as a crime against humanity, the UK will cede the islands to Mauritius. Here are some of the exiled Chagossians uprooted to Mauritius and the UK, photographed over several years by Morgan Fache

Photographs by Morgan Fache

Main image: Allen, June 2017, Gatwick airport, UK
Allen, born in Diego Garcia in 1970, regards himself as president-in-exile of Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands after being elected by Chagossians. ‘I had this inspiration, this fire growing inside of me, to change this situation for the people,’ he says

  • Lucie, 2017, Crawley, UK

    Lucie Tiatous was born on Peros Banhos and grew up on Diego Garcia until she was 12, when her family moved to Mauritius. In 2008, she and her husband moved to the UK, where Lucie lives with her daughter Mylène. In 2012, she visited the Chagos Islands. ‘We only stayed seven days, under escort by US soldiers. I went to the church where I did my first communion. I looked at the sea when the boat brought us to Peros Banhos. I was happy and sad at the same time.’ As Lucie’s husband was dying, he asked for his ashes to be scattered at sea so he could return to Chagos
    Lucie, an older woman, sits on an armchair holding a framed picture of her husband.

  • Footballers, June 2017. Crawley, UK

    Crawley is home to about 3,500 Chagossians, the largest community in the UK and about two-thirds of the total. This picture was taken at a football day held by Chagossians in one of Crawley’s stadiums. The player turning to the camera is part of the Chagos Island Association team, which took part in the 2016 Conifa World Football Cup in Abkhazia, a tournament for minorities, stateless peoples and regions not recognised by Fifa
    A huddle of football players

  • Mylène, June 2017, Crawley, UK

    Mylène (standing) holds her granddaughter, while her daughter Anaïs holds Mylène’s grandson. One of Lucie’s daughters, she arrived in 2004 with a brother on a trip organised by Allen. In Mauritius, Mylène ran a restaurant in Port Louis but she wanted a better life for her family, so she lived alone in the UK for 18 months, working as a cleaner, to pay to bring her family over. She now works in restaurants again and was able to visit the Chagos Islands in 2010
    A woman stands holding a young girl on her hip, while a younger woman sits holding a baby.

  • Allen, June 2017, Gatwick airport, UK

    Allen was born in Diego Garcia in 1970 and for six years has considered himself president-in-exile of the temporary government of Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands. He was elected by Chagossians living in Mauritius, Australia, France and the UK.Allen grew up and studied in the Roche-Bois district of Mauritius. Coming from a poor family, he did all kinds of casual work to survive. From a young age he wanted to defend his community and started a Chagossian group on Mauritius. ‘I had this inspiration, this fire growing inside of me, to change this situation for the people and their children,’ he says. ‘If we could make it to the UK, it could change our living conditions. We had a down-to-earth objective: being active for the people and changing the living conditions of the Chagossians, because, on Mauritius, we were – and we still are – considered as second-class citizens’
    A man in a dark suit and sunglasses stands by a chainlink fence as an aeroplane takes off behind him

  • Olivier Bancoult, June 2017, UK supreme court London

    Bancoult, an activist and leader of the Chagos Refugee Group, leads a delegation to the highest court in Britain in his long fight with the British government for the exiles’ right of return. In this challenge, Bancoult was contesting a court ruling over the designation of a marine park around the archipelago, which included a ban on fishing
    A man wearing a suit and a pink tie talks into a phone as he leads a groups of suited men and women across a London square.

  • Girls, June 2017, Crawley, UK

    Girls of Chagossian and Mauritian origin at the community football day. Most Chagossians of their age, the third generation since the islanders were expelled, do not want to return to the archipelago. ‘Go to the Chagos, yes, but on vacation,’ one said. Once they have finished school and college, they see their future as being in the UK
    Three girls pose for the camera in front of football pitches.

  • Little Brother, December 2014, Port Louis, Mauritius

    Everyone in the Chagossian community knows ‘Little Brother’, a 78-year-old ‘figure’ and storyteller, whose eyes are wet as he reminisces. ‘I came here in 1973, but I haven’t forgotten what I was going through at Chagos. ’Politicians don’t care about Chagossians. Every day of Mauritius’s independence is a stabbing for us. The Mauritian government never apologised for it. We’ve been fighting this fight for 40 years – are young people going to take up the torch again, when the elders are gone? We don’t have much time left’
    A man sits in silhouette by a window covered in net curtains.

  • Louis France Bertrand, June 2017, Crawley

    Bertrand was born on Peros Banhos in 1943. Like many Chagossians, he and his family were deported to Mauritius during the 1970s – Louis was 17 when he arrived. ‘Mauritian people mistreated me,’ he says. ‘There was much discrimination against the Chagossians.’ He came to the UK in 2015 for hip replacement surgery. ‘Here in England, I feel all right; I have a roof and what to eat, but I feel like a prisoner. I miss the Chagos, I miss everything there’
    An older man sits in a chair against a white wall, looking out of a window.

  • Diego Garcia Street, December 2014, Port Louis, Mauritius

    The street borrowed its name from the main island of Chagos, which became a US military base in the early 1970s. Here, Chagossian sand and an azure lagoon gives way to concrete and wandering addicts. Only the colour of the sky and a few coconut palms give the illusion of home. The Chagossians settled here have only their memories for escape
    A tin-roofed shack on red dirt with palm trees and blue sky.

  • Anaïs, December 2014. Port Louis, Mauritius

    Seventeen-year-old Anaïs was born in Mauritius to a Chagossian mother and a Mauritian father. Her grandmother and aunt live in Britain. ‘Before, we lived together, as a family,’ she says. Having just qualified to be a flight attendant, Anaïs hopes to see the rest of her family more often and maybe one day to see the Chagos Islands. ‘But it’s gonna be a little hard, though,’ she admits
    A girl sits at a table in a cafe, looking out of a window.

  • Rosemay, December 2014, Port Louis, Mauritius

    ‘Nobody’s doing anything for Chagossians! We’ve got the misery.’ Rosemay, 67, was born in Peros Banhos and deported along with other Chagossians. ‘Over there, it was more beautiful than here, a hundred percent.’ She married a Mauritian man, who has since died, and Rosemay lives on his meagre pension. Nobody is helping her, , she claims, neither her children nor Olivier Bancoult. ‘Everything for him and his family! Nice house, trips and what?’ she says. ‘Misery! Misery!’
    A woman sits on a bed with her hair in curlers in a basic room with a tin roof looking out of a window.

  • Raymond, December 2014, Port Louis, Mauritius

    Raymond Antalika is 102 years old. His father and mother were born in Chagos, but he was born and raised in Mauritius, where he was a cabinetmaker. His grandchildren, who take care of him, do not know the history of the Chagos Islands. Until this photograph was taken, they did not even know that their great-grandparents were Chagossians. That history is very far from them and their lives, they say
    An elderly man grips a chair arm preparing to sit on it outside on a front porch.

  • Grandma Lilly, December 2014, Port Louis, Mauritius

    Returning after four years in the UK, Grandma Lilly sits surrounded by her family in the neighbourhood of Batterie Cassée, having brought with her from Britain clothes for the family. Lilly can finally sing and have fun with four generations of her family in their courtyard
    A woman sits on a chair in a courtyard surrounded by people. In front of her is an open suitcase from which she is taking clothes.

  • Rodrigues, December 2014, Port Louis, Mauritius

    The day is in full swing in Batterie Cassée – streets are bustling, children play. At night, though, the district has become dangerous, some residents say. Inequality and insecurity are rising on Mauritius. Rich neighbourhoods become fortresses, while the poor ones are powder kegs. ‘At Chagos we were just living, there weren’t all these problems.’ It is a sentence that could be attributed to any Chagossian
    Nine young boys hanging around on a scruffy street. Some sit on a wall, three are on bikes
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