How Starmer's Chagos deal sent a London council into meltdown

Evening Standard

Transcript

00:00The UK government is under pressure to support people from the Chagos Islands arriving in

00:04the UK to claim their right to British citizenship, following a surge in arrivals, over 600 since

00:09July, including 152 this week alone at Heathrow.

00:12Here in Hillingdon, where many Chagossians have landed, the council is warning that it's

00:15facing a financial crisis.

00:18It's expecting to spend £2 million this year helping homeless Chagossians and has requested

00:22emergency government funding.

00:24As British citizens, people of Chagossian descent are entitled to the same support as any other

00:28homeless person with a UK passport.

00:30But Councillor Steve Tuckwell, who is responsible for housing in the Tory-run borough, says the

00:34council is at breaking point.

00:36The pressure is beyond acute.

00:38We are at the point now where the council has basically run out of money and that's because

00:42of the pressures that are being put on us by national government.

00:45Here in Hillingdon, because we're a port authority for having Heathrow Airport, our temporary accommodation

00:50pressure is very acute.

00:52Now we've had to find accommodation, we've had to set up processing centres, we've had to

00:55support these people through the process of settling in the United Kingdom.

00:59That is taking dedicated officer or resource away from supporting Hillingdon residents.

01:04By and large though, it's also cost the Hillingdon taxpayer £2 million in addition to the significant

01:10pressures that this council is facing on the back of the Home Office asylum policies.

01:14The government will say that they are supporting Hillingdon.

01:17In truth, no they're not.

01:18They will fund us for the first 10 days when the financial pressure around that is a lot wider.

01:23Chagossians are arriving due to concerns over the UK's recent treaty to transfer sovereignty

01:27of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

01:30The deal includes a payment of £101 million annually for 99 years to keep control of the

01:35UK-US military base that was built on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

01:39But for many Chagossians who are coming from Mauritius, this deal is being seen as a betrayal

01:43and has sparked fears over their right to return to their homeland.

01:46Some also fear they could be prosecuted by Mauritian authorities for their support of UK sovereignty

01:50over the Chagos Archipelago.

01:52This is the case for Chagossian Paul and his family, who arrived in Hillingdon in September.

01:57We came here because there's a criminal court which has been applied in 2021 in Mauritius.

02:03For everyone who supports the UK sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, we'll have to pay a

02:09fine of £5 million or an imprisonment of 10 years.

02:14When we defend our island, sometimes people say, return back to your island, return back to Chagos.

02:20Under a 2022 UK nationality scheme, all descendants of displaced Chagossians are eligible for free

02:26British citizenship for five years.

02:28Campaigners and local officials are demanding more government assistance, accusing ministers

02:32of neglecting responsibilities while making deals about the Chagossians' ancestral homeland

02:36without consulting them.

02:37I was listening to some of the people that arrived last week and they're very grateful

02:41to be here in Hillingdon but the fact of the matter is that they find life incredibly difficult

02:45over in Mauritius.

02:46They have British passports and they do believe that they're being treated very, very differently

02:50by the Mauritian government as a direct result of this government's policy.

02:53Hillingdon is a very welcoming borough.

02:55We've been a port authority since we've been in the London borough of Hillingdon and we

02:59will do what our statutory duty tells us to do but I'm calling on government to do the

03:03right thing and make sure that your national policies, when they have a financial impact

03:07on local authority, make sure that you're compensating Hillingdon Council for that financial difficulty.

03:12But the UK government said that Chagossians were expected to make their own housing arrangements

03:16prior to travelling to the UK and that the recent influx of arrivals was completely unrelated

03:21to the Chagoss Islands deal with Mauritius.

03:25Bye-bye.

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