Chagos Islanders win right to return home

Families expelled from the Chagos Islands by the British government to make way for the Diego Garcia US airbase today won their legal battle to return home.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett took the case to the Court of Appeal after two High Court judges found for the Chagossians.

Today three judges, headed by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, dismissed the action.

Lord Justice Sedley, giving the lead ruling, said the method used by the government to stop the islanders returning – making an Order in Council under the Royal Prerogative – was unlawful and an abuse of power by the government executive.

Lord Justice Waller said the decision had been taken by a government minister “acting without any constraint”.

“Indeed, the Crown may be doing something that, if she only knew the true position, she would prefer not to do, and yet it is then said that the government can hide behind the ’Crown’s prerogative’.”

But the government was granted a stay on the court order won by the Chagossians pending an application to challenge the decision in the UK's House of Lords.