By South China Morning Post | Created at 2026-08-03 15:01:44 | Updated at 2026-08-03 23:01:55
8 hours ago
Bertrice Pompe was born in
Diego Garcia, situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia, in 1971, making her one of the last Chagossians to enter the world on an island that her family would soon be forced to leave.
“Some families, like brothers, sisters, were separated,” she said. “Some went to the Seychelles, some to Mauritius … close family, brothers, sister, mother, father, separated … and they never saw each other again.”
Before Mauritian independence in 1968, the British government detached the Chagos Islands from the Mauritius administrative boundaries to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.
The entire population of the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago was removed in the late 1960s and early 1970s to make way for one of the most strategically important US-British military bases in the world.
“We were always identified as different,” Pompe said, about growing up in the Seychelles.
Now based in London, she has become a prominent voice in the Chagossian fight for the right to return. She also opposes the 2025 agreement to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius and allow Britain to retain a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia for billions of dollars.
