Proposed Amendment to British Nationality Law - Chagossians

This briefing was prepared by Fragomen LLP on a pro bono basis proposing an amendment to British nationality law in relation to the Chagossians - those born, or descended from those born, on the Chagos islands. 

Henry Smith, the MP for Crawley, has committed to introducing an amendment at Report stage on this matter. He previously introduced a Private Members’ Bill in 2018 which had a similar (although slightly less ambitious) effect (I wrote about this before here). That Bill dropped out of the Parliamentary programme in 2019 when that session of Parliament was dissolved. Now, the Nationality and Borders Bill 2021 before Parliament gives an excellent opportunity to ask for the change that is needed. The Bill is currently before a Bill Committee; they have taken oral evidence, and will now begin line-by-line consideration of amendments in 2 weeks’ time on 19 October.

The principle of the amendment is simple: From the time of their exclusion from the Chagos, the Chagossians were being affected, and their descendants are still being affected, by the fact that they were outside of British territory. It meant that their children born outside of British territory (for example Mauritius or Seychelles) became British citizens by descent, and so their children in turn (the grandchildren of those born on the islands) are not (in general) regarded by nationality law as British citizens today. But the exclusion was not voluntary. The British government has said many times that the manner of removal was wrong and is regretted. The High Court has found in the case of Bancoult that the exclusion was ultra vires (unlawful). It is inappropriate for the nationality law consequences of that exclusion to still apply.

For a British nationality practitioner, there is much in the Bill that is welcome; the provisions to deal with the present-day effects of historic effects of legislative unfairness (for example gender discrimination) are an example. But this is a continuing wrong that needs to be righted.