Exiled Indian Ocean islanders have lost a court challenge launched to prevent Britain from setting up a marine park they suspect is aimed at stopping them from ever returning.
Former residents of the Chagos Islands archipelago in British Indian Ocean Territory say the move to establish a marine protected area would effectively prevent them from resettling the atolls as it involves a ban on commercial fishing.
Britain expelled the Chagossians between 1967 and 1973, relocating them to Mauritius and Seychelles, to allow the United States to establish a naval and air base in the Indian Ocean. The exiles have fought a long series of legal battles for the right of return.
The British Indian Ocean Territory lies 500km south of the Maldives. The main island, Diego Garcia, is now populated by US and British service personnel and some private contractors, numbering a few thousand.
The Chagos Refugees Group claimed the proposed marine area was legally flawed.
But at the High Court in London on Tuesday, judges Stephen Richard and John Mitting ruled that the marine park was indeed "compatible with EU [European Union] law".