00:00Nigel Farage has claimed that the UK government refused him entry to the Chagos Islands.
00:05However, when the Independent approached the government with this claim,
00:09their response fundamentally undermined what Mr Farage had claimed.
00:13Here's the most extraordinary thing. The British government are replying pressure
00:18on the President and the government of the Maldives to do everything within their power
00:23to stop me getting on that boat and going to the Chagos Islands.
00:27Now, if I was an ISIS fighter crossing the channel to Dover, they wouldn't give a damn.
00:33No, they put me in a hotel, they give me three meals a day.
00:35A government spokesperson said that they were not notified in advance of Mr Farage's intentions
00:41to travel to the Chagos archipelago and had no awareness that he was even in the Maldives
00:46until he posted it on his social media. What then were the actual events that took place for Farage
00:53to make this claim? Well, Mr Farage had travelled to the Maldives to join a
00:57delegation supporting Chagossians attempting to establish a permanent base. But crucially,
01:04you can't simply just turn up. Access to the Chagos Islands are tightly restricted
01:08and you even need to apply for an official permit to enter. So the Independent asked Reform,
01:15did Nigel Farage apply for this permit? And Reform actually declined to comment on this.
01:21So why do you need a permit to enter the Chagos Islands? Well, these restrictions are long standing.
01:28The largest island, Diego Garcia, hosts a joint UK-US military base, one of the most strategically
01:35significant in the region. So entry rules across this territory are really strict.
01:40Now this comes as political tension rises over the UK government's proposed deal to transfer
01:47sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius. But according to sources who spoke to
01:53the Telegraph, the immediate issue with Nigel Farage wasn't a political one. The voyage reportedly fell
01:59through because UK authorities insisted that only trained crew should undertake that 24-hour journey.
02:06And this is the UK government's position on the situation. They said that their primary concern
02:12at this point is to ensure the safe departure of a group of individuals from an island that is not
02:17fit for human habitation. So was Nigel Farage refused entry? Or did he just not submit a formal request
02:26where there are really tight restrictions? This is the context behind his claim.
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