1,000 signatures reached
To: UK government
I'm a UK citizen - stop my daughters' deportation
Change the law to allow the grandchildren of deported Chagos Islanders - including my daughters - access to British citizenship.
Why is this important?
I am a British citizen, my family comes from the Chagos Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean. My family - and everyone on Chagos - were forcibly removed from the islands in the early 1970s to make way for an American air base. My mother was given no compensation and abandoned in Seychelles, where I was born and grew up in extreme poverty.
Only those born on Chagos or who had a parent born there can get a British passport. So because of the deportations which ruined my mother’s life, my daughters who have lived in the UK since 2014 are not entitled to British citizenship - And now they - like my mother - are facing deportation to a country where they would they’d be alone, with no family support and few opportunities.
In 2016 the Government told Chagossians we can not go back to our homeland. But how can it be right for the UK government to say we can not go home and we can not stay here in Britain either?
A Bill before Parliament would give my daughters - and thousands of Chagossians in the same position - the right to live in the UK. The Home Secretary Sajid Javid has said he’ll consider making these changes but so far has done nothing.
The government have apologised for the removal of my mother’s generation from Chagos. But if they are really sorry, they will take action to stop my children suffering the consequences today.
Only those born on Chagos or who had a parent born there can get a British passport. So because of the deportations which ruined my mother’s life, my daughters who have lived in the UK since 2014 are not entitled to British citizenship - And now they - like my mother - are facing deportation to a country where they would they’d be alone, with no family support and few opportunities.
In 2016 the Government told Chagossians we can not go back to our homeland. But how can it be right for the UK government to say we can not go home and we can not stay here in Britain either?
A Bill before Parliament would give my daughters - and thousands of Chagossians in the same position - the right to live in the UK. The Home Secretary Sajid Javid has said he’ll consider making these changes but so far has done nothing.
The government have apologised for the removal of my mother’s generation from Chagos. But if they are really sorry, they will take action to stop my children suffering the consequences today.
