Another Take: The Chagos Islands, the UK and the US
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on February 27, 2023. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
Why have the people of the Chagos Islands not been allowed to go home? The archipelago in the Indian Ocean was home to Chagossians until the 1960s. As decolonization swept the globe, the United Kingdom created one last African colony. Slowly, and then all at once, it forced people to leave their homes, then leased the land to the United States for a military base. Chagossians have been fighting – and sometimes winning – in court to return to their home islands. Now, Human Rights Watch says what the UK and the US did amounts to crimes against humanity.
In this episode:
- Clive Baldwin (@cliveabaldwin), Senior Legal Advisor, Human Rights Watch
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Tamara Khandaker. The original production team was Negin Owliaei, Miranda Lin, and our host, Malika Bilal.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi, I'm Tamara Kondokar, and this is another take, where we bring you episodes from the archives. |
| 0:17.0 | Four thousand kilometers away from Iran, the Chegos Islands have been caught up in the U.S. Israel War. |
| 0:27.4 | Chegos is a remote, British-held archipelago in the Indian Ocean and home to the Diego Garcia |
| 0:34.3 | military base. It's a joint base of the United States and the United Kingdom, |
| 0:39.9 | one of the most strategically important in the world. |
| 0:43.4 | Last week, the UK accused Iran of firing two ballistic missiles towards the base. |
| 0:50.3 | It would be the longest range attack Iran has ever attempted. |
| 0:54.3 | Iran has denied it, calling the incident a false flag. |
| 0:58.4 | But hours after the incident reportedly took place, |
| 1:02.0 | the UK gave the U.S. permission to use its military bases |
| 1:06.2 | to launch strikes on Iranian missile sites, |
| 1:09.3 | targeting shipping in the St-up Hormuz. |
| 1:13.9 | All of this is playing out against a heated dispute over the island's future. |
| 1:20.7 | Last year, the UK agreed to hand sovereignty of the Chegos Islands to neighboring Mauritius. |
| 1:26.8 | It would keep a 99-year lease on the base. |
| 1:30.8 | But in January, U.S. President Donald Trump called the decision |
| 1:34.9 | an act of great stupidity. |
| 1:37.3 | Now it's making waves in Congress. |
| 1:39.9 | This is U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Tuesday |
| 1:42.4 | during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Maratius is closely aligned to Beijing.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Tuesday during a foreign relations committee hearing. |
| 1:45.5 | Mauritius is closely aligned to Beijing, and the transfer gives China leverage over one of our most strategic military assets, |
... |
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