15 leave for Chagos |28 March 2006

They are expected to set sail for three main islands on March 30, and to return Mauritius on April 10,” the Chagosian Association secretary Anne Marie Gendron told Nation Monday.

“They will visit Diego Garcia, Salomon and Peros,” she said, adding that they were very excited to be visiting the islands on which they were born, but were forced to leave to make way for military bases.

The Chagosians were recently allowed British citizenship, and their trip was sponsored by the British High Commission.

The Chagosians were forced to leave their homeland in the 1960s, but after consultations with the U.S. authorities who now occupy the islands, the British Government, which owns the islands, agreed to visits by Chagosians who said they wished to see the graves of their relatives.

Miss Gendron said that a visit proposed last year failed because there was a problem with the boat that was supposed to take them there.