evidence: The intended agreement will allow for the return of former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s. The UK would intend to maintain control of its strategic Indian Ocean military base in Diego Garcia, which it leases to the US. [...] In 2019 the international court of justice, the UN’s highest court, ruled that the continuing British occupation of the islands was illegal and the Chagos Islands were rightfully part of Mauritius. [...] In one of the most shameful episodes of British postwar colonialism, the then Labour government expelled the Chagossians because under international law it could only separate the archipelago from Mauritius if it had no permanent population. The archipelago was reconstituted as a colonial entity as the British Indian Ocean Territory, within which Diego Garcia and the US base could rest. All Chagossians were removed from the islands by the end of 1971. There are currently more than 2,000 US service personnel and temporary casual workers, mainly Filipino, on the base.