The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago as part of its British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), and the UK and US staff a joint military base there. However in order to construct this base the British government split the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius and other Islands from the Seychelles while forming the BIOT in 1965, shortly before Mauritian independence, and forcibly removed the Chagossian population from the islands between 1968-1973. The Chagossian diaspora now lives in poverty in Mauritius, Seychelles and the UK, while Mauritius has continually sought to regain control over its former territory. The United Nations and International Courts of Justice have declared the UK’s administration of the Island chain unlawful in recent years, and in 2019 ruled that Britain return the islands to Mauritius, however the British government refuses, and has declined to negotiate while refusing the return of Chagossians. should they return the Chagos Island territory to Mauritius?
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