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Daughter of a furniture-maker calls on PM to listen to Chagossians
After 60 years in exile, islanders are still pawns in a wider, geopolitical game, writes ELIZABETH MISTRY
Chagossians attend a protest to respond to the British announcement agreeing to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius and against their ‘Exclusion’ from Chagos negotiations, outside the House of Parliament, in London, October

“I WAS TWO years old when they forced us leave our home,” recalls Bernadette Dugasse of the day more than six decades ago she and her family were forced from their home on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, “but I will never forget it.

“My father was a furniture-maker and my mother was pregnant with my sister when they told us we had to go.  

“We didn’t understand why but they told my father that he didn’t have the right to make furniture for the Chagossian people any more. We had to pack our things and take a boat to the Seychelles. We didn’t have a choice.”

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Chagossians attend a protest
Britain / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025