British Indian Ocean Territory commissioner’s appeal against decision last year rejected by judges in London
Appeal court judges have backed a decision that dozens of asylum seekers were unlawfully detained on one of the world’s most remote islands, rejecting an appeal on Tuesday by the commissioner for the territory.
Exactly a year ago, on 16 December 2024, a judge ruled that Tamils who arrived on the island of Diego Garcia, a UK and US military base, after a shipwreck while they were trying to reach Canada to seek asylum, were unlawfully detained there for three years in conditions described as “hell on Earth”.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) commissioner, Nishi Dholakia, lodged an appeal in the territory’s court of appeal that the Tamils were not unlawfully detained on the island. But all four grounds of his appeal were rejected by judges in their judgment handed down in a London court. They found that evidence presented by the commissioner to support his appeal was “a highly selective exercise”.
After the unlawful detention finding last year that was upheld on Tuesday, the British government could face a bill of millions of pounds in damages for unlawfully detaining more than 60 people for such a long period.
