UK court temporarily bars British govt from completing Chagos Islands deal

A high court judge issued an injunction early Thursday morning, temporarily blocking the British government from finalizing a deal with a "foreign government" concerning the Chagos Islands .

"The government may take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer," the order, issued by Mr. Justice Goose at 2:25 am (6:55 am IST), said, Sky News reported.

The injunction was sought by Bertrice Pompe, a Chagossian woman who sees the deal as a "betrayal" of their rights.

A hearing is expected to take place at the high court at 10:30 am local time.

The development came just hours before the British and Mauritian governments were set to complete the deal, under which the United Kingdom was to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius.

In return, Mauritius would have allowed Britain and the United States to continue operating a strategically important military base on one of the largest island (Diego Garcia) of the archipelago, for an initial period of 99 years in exchange for a multi-billion pound payment, as per the BBC.



UK-Mauritius faceoff over Chagos

In 1965, Britain "purchased" Chagos for £3m, but Mauritius has argued it was illegally forced to give away the archipelago as part of a deal to get independence from Britain in 1968.

The UK has come under increasing international pressure to hand over control of the archipelago after various United Nations bodies sided with the Mauritian sovereignty claims in recent years.