No Person Has the Right of Abode: On Fate of the Chagossians

“We boarded the ship in the dark so that we could not see our island. And when we boarded the ship, conditions in the hull of the ship were bad. We were like animals and slaves in that ship. People were dying of sadness in that ship. And as for me, I was four months pregnant at that time. The ship took four days to reach Mauritius. After our arrival, my child was born and died … I maintain I must return to the island where I was born and I must die there where my grandparents have been buried. In the place where I took birth, and in my native island.”

From the testimony of Lisbey Elysé, who was expelled from Chagos when she was not yet 20, before the judges of the World Court. The testimony was given in her native Kreol language.

“No person has the right of abode” (Chapter 9, (1)) of the 2004 Constitution Order by the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Adopted from the Atlantic. July/August 2022.