The Chagos Islands were paradise. Then came the UK and US.

Why have the people of the Chagos Islands not been allowed to go home? The archipelago in the Indian Ocean was home to Chagossians until the 1960s. As decolonisation swept the globe, the United Kingdom created one last African colony. Slowly and then all at once, it forced people to leave their homes, then leased the land to the United States for a military base. Chagossians have been fighting – and sometimes winning – in court to return to their home islands, and now, Human Rights Watch says what the UK and the US did amounts to crimes against humanity.

In this episode: 

• Clive Baldwin (@cliveabaldwin), senior legal advisor, Human Rights Watch

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Andy Greiner and Adam Abou Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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