British Indian Ocean Territory

Overview

This is an incredibley small territory of the United Kingdom the territory is essentially the Chagos Archipelago, 55 Islands and only 60 q. km of land. It is used by the UK only for defence purposes, there is a Navy base (which is shared with the United States Navy)on the largest Island, Diego Garcia, on which defence personnel live apart from this the islands are uninhabited.

History

Established as a territory of the UK in 1965, a number of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) islands were transferred to the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976. Subsequently, BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago. The largest and most southerly of the islands, Diego Garcia, contains a joint UK-US naval support facility. All of the remaining islands are uninhabited. Former agricultural workers, earlier residents in the islands, were relocated primarily to Mauritius but also to the Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In 2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration order that had excluded them from the archipelago, but upheld the special military status of Diego Garcia.