MORE THAN 700 Chagossians gathered in Manchester on Saturday to demand that their right to self-determination be respected.

The rally, hosted by Friends of the British Overseas Territories (FotBot), was prompted by the government’s decision to cede the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Chagossians were forcibly removed from the Indian Ocean territory in 1968 and 1973 to make way for a military base shared by Britain and the United States, and access to the islands remains restricted.