'This will go a long way to rectifying years of generational trauma suffered by our community' - Crawley's Chagossian community celebrates 'key victory' with amendment to government bill

The Chagossian community in Crawley is celebrating after Crawley MP Henry Smith said he has secured a ‘key’ victory after the Government accepted the provisions of his amendment on British citizenship for Chagossians to the Nationality and Borders Bill.
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The amendment to the bill enables those descended from individuals born in the British Indian Ocean Territory to be allowed to register as British citizens through simplifying nationality law so anyone who can prove they’re of Chagossian descent becomes eligible to register as a British overseas territories citizen.

The MP, who has championed the Chagossian community since he was elected as MP in 2020 said in January 2018 he introduced the British Indian Ocean Territory (Citizenship) Bill, speaking in Parliament in support of this cause. In July 2018, the Home Affairs Select Committee called on the Government to support the Crawley MP’s proposals in its ‘The Windrush generation’ report - according to Mr Smith.

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The MP said while the conclusion of the parliamentary session meant that the Bill would ultimately fall, this was not the end of his pursuing of the matter.

Rosy Leveque, from the British Indian Overseas Territory Citizens groupRosy Leveque, from the British Indian Overseas Territory Citizens group
Rosy Leveque, from the British Indian Overseas Territory Citizens group

And Rosy Leveque, from the British Indian Overseas Territory Citizens group, welcomed the news and said it goes 'a long way to rectifying years of generational trauma suffered by our community'.

Miss Leveque said: "We definitely were not expecting a concession from the Government last Friday, and we were pleasantly surprised when Henry Smith made the announcement after his meeting with the Home Office Minister on the March 18.

"Chagossian descendants will be able to register as British Overseas Territory Citizens, and those registering under this section can then also register by entitlement as British Citizens which will be under new section 4k of the Nationality and Borders Bill.

"They will have five years to make the applications.

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"The applications will be free of charge as stated in thr Home Office Minister, Kevin's letter to Henry Smith, however it is likely they will still have to pay the £80 ceremony fee.

"The Government's terms appears satisfactory and very much in line with what we asked for, even though they seem to have removed sections 4 and 5 of our original amendment, they have confirmed through Kevin's letter the same terms apply in terms of what sections 4 & 5 intended to do which was granting the applications free of charge and them being able to register as BOTC and BC at the same time.

"The acceptance of the Chagos Islanders Amendment by the UK Government will go a long way to rectifying years of generational trauma suffered by our community. All we wanted was to be with our families under one roof, and now this can finally be realised."

Miss Leveque also explained when the battle for citizenship started.

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She said: "This battle for British Citizenship for Chagossian descendants started more than 13 years ago.

"The late Lord Avebury was one of the first people in the House of Lords to speak up about the Citizenship and Immigration issues which the Chagossian community faced back in 2009. He spoke up for Chagossians in Parliament.

"His legacy was continued on by Baroness Lister who spoke up against the discrimination our community face and of course Henry Smith and Andrew Rosindell too. Many Chagossians have been praying for a positive outcome and we are all overjoyed that the UK Government have listened and are including us in this Bill. Many of us have not seen our grandparents, parents, cousins for decades because of this issue and now we're very much looking forward to being reunited with our families in the UK.

"The future of Chagossians is in the UK. Our families first escaped discrimination and poverty in Mauritius in 2002 when we were granted British citizenship for the first time through the BOTC Act of 2002.

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"However none of us were prepared for the issues this would cause, the anomalies in this law through differences in years of birth meaning some members of the same family were British and others were not. The rules in British Nationality law meant that British Citizenship only extended to the first generation born away from their British Territory, which meant the 2nd and subsequent generations were not granted British Citizenship.

"We are grateful the government finally saw us as a unique case because unlike other BOTCs, we cannot be born on our grandparents and great grandparents British territory. This was due to forced exile by our own UK government, and this was why we did not have the same British citizenship rights as our grandparents.

"This is indeed a very unique situation. We are also so grateful to Dave Varney and Trent Miller from BOTC Campaign who have been campaigning for over eight years to have anomalies in British Nationality law rectified, they took us under their wing when they made clauses 1 to 8 of this Bill a possibility and realised the Chagossians were going to be left out. We couldn't have done it without their guidance and support."

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