Migrants stranded for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have been brought to the UK.
The Sri Lankan Tamils are permitted to remain in the country for six months, with financial support from the Foreign Office, according to documents seen by the BBC.
Their journey to the UK marks the end of years of complex legal battles waged over thousands of miles over their fate, but their long-term future remains uncertain.
Most of the group of around 60 migrants have been living in a makeshift camp on Diego Garcia – the site of a strategic UK-US military base – since October 2021, when they became the first people ever to file asylum claims there. On Monday, a Government spokesperson described the move as a “one-off, due to the exceptional nature of these cases and in the interests of their welfare”.
“This Government inherited a deeply troubling situation that remained unresolved under the last administration for years,” the spokesperson said.
Tessa Gregory of UK law firm Leigh Day, which represents some of the migrants, said it was the “only sensible solution to end the humanitarian crisis” on the island.
“This vulnerable group which includes 16 children have spent 38 months detained in the most squalid of conditions on Crown land… we hope our clients will now be able to seek safe haven and begin to rebuild their lives,” she said.
The BBC gained unprecedented access earlier this year to Diego Garcia and the migrant camp there, where the Tamils were housed in groups in military tents, some of which had leaks and rats nesting inside.
During their time on the island, there were multiple hunger strikes and numerous incidents of self-harm and suicide attempts in response to the conditions, after which some people were transferred to Rwanda for medical treatment. (BBC)
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