Diego Garcia asylum seekers offered direct transfer to the UK

The UK has offered dozens of asylum seekers who are – or were – detained on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia the chance to apply to enter the UK directly, a British official told the group on 4 November, according to a transcript of the conversation seen by The New Humanitarian.

The offer replaces a controversial plan announced by the British government last month to transfer most of the asylum seekers – all but one of whom are from minority Tamil communities – to a transit centre in Romania for six months before admitting them to the UK.

The group includes 56 people on Diego Garcia and eight who were transferred to Rwanda for medical treatment. They arrived by boat from Sri Lanka and India starting in late 2021. Passengers on the initial boat said they were trying to reach Canada before their boat broke down near the British territory.

“I feel relieved,” one of the asylum seekers in Rwanda told The New Humanitarian.

Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and hosts a UK-US military base. The British government announced plans in early October to cede the islands, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to Mauritius following years of negotiations.

A BIOT official said last month that the reason for the Romania plan was to prevent the islands from becoming a direct migration route to the UK. But lawyers representing the asylum seekers challenged the plan, arguing that six months of detention in a facility with barred windows would be harmful to their vulnerable clients.

Dozens attempted suicide on Diego Garcia in response to poor living conditions in the fenced camp where the asylum seekers were housed. UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, called for their urgent relocation in late 2023 due to “a significant risk of suicide and attempted suicide and further incidents of self-harm”.

Those in Rwanda also reported threats of violence and sexual harassment.

The asylum seekers’ entry to the UK will depend on “there being no adverse information found as a result” of clearance applications and biometrics that they will have to submit for review, the official said, according to the transcript.

“Entry to the UK will be for a short period of time, which will allow you to consider your next steps,” the official said, offering to provide additional details in the coming days. “Our aim is to arrange a direct flight to the UK as soon as possible,” he added.

At least three asylum seekers on Diego Garcia who are being held in a “short-term holding facility” because of criminal convictions or ongoing criminal investigations will not be allowed to request transfer to the UK, according to the official.

He also said that future arrivals to BIOT, including family members of the asylum seekers currently on Diego Garcia, will not be admitted to the UK. Instead, they will be given the choice of returning to their countries of origin or being transferred to Saint Helena, a remote British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed last month to provide £6 million to Saint Helena in exchange for the territory agreeing to house asylum seekers or migrants arriving on the Chagos islands after the transfer to Mauritius is completed.

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to announce the new plan for the asylum seekers within 48 hours, the law firm Leigh Day, which represents members of the group, said in a press release on 4 November.

“Our clients, including 16 children, welcome the Home Secretary’s belated decision to offer them safety in the UK,” Leigh Day solicitor Tom Short said in the firm’s statement.

“Our clients fled Sri Lanka seeking refuge from persecution. The treatment and unlawful detention they have endured at the hands of the British Indian Ocean Territory Administration for the past three years is disgraceful,” he said.

“Today’s decision is an enormous relief to our clients and we urge the Home Secretary to close the camp and bring our clients here without any further delay so that they can begin their recovery,” Short added.

The New Humanitarian reached out to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for comment but didn’t receive a response in time for publication.

Edited by Andrew Gully.