Statement of Sabrina jean

  

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sabrina Jean, Chagos Community. We are delighted that the UK government is at last looking at returning the Chagossian people to our homeland in the Indian Ocean. We were illegally deported from the Chagos Islands forty years ago, and Mark Simmonds, current minister for the Foreign Office, is to be congratulated for starting the process of return. It is crucial that results of the review be completely transparent and fair – as the government has promised today. Given the many experts available to advise on resettlement, the extensive research that has already taken place and the Chagossian community’s ongoing openness to the various possibilities, we are confident that the process can be concluded far more swiftly than the estimated 18 months.  Indeed, we think it is essential that the report is completed during the lifetime of this parliament - if the government is sincere in its determination to find ‘a just settlement for the Chagossian people’, as the Foreign Secretary stated, then it must act while it is in power. We look forward to working together with the Coalition government to return to our homeland.