The UK is committing an appalling colonial crime – as we speak.

In its last African colony, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), the UK, with US support, has prevented the Indigenous Chagossian people from returning to their homeland in the Chagos Archipelago.

The UK and US pushed Chagossians off their land in the 1960s and 1970s so a US military base could be built on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

They then abandoned the expelled Chagossians in Mauritius or Seychelles, where they lived in abject poverty. Many later moved to the UK. 

Fifty years after being expelled from the Chagos Archipelago, thousands of Chagossians now live around the world. But they’re still not allowed back home.

A new HRW report details how the UK and US governments have treated Chagossians as a people without rights, cooperating to permanently displace them from their homeland without consultation or adequate compensation.

The forced displacement of the entire Chagossian people by the UK and US governments, and the continued blocking of their return home, are crimes against humanity, as is their persecution by the UK on the grounds of race and ethnicity.

The strange thing is, the UK government has repeatedly acknowledged over the last 20 years that its treatment of the Chagossians was “shameful and wrong.” But these apologies have not led to concrete reparations.

And that’s what’s now long overdue: the UK and US governments should provide full reparations to the Chagossian people, including  financial compensation to all Chagossians, of every generation, for crimes committed against them.

Above all, the UK should immediately lift the ban on Chagossians permanently returning to the Chagos Islands.

Then, the UK and the US should ensure financial and other support to restore the islands and enable the Chagossians to return and live and work in dignity.

A great wrong was done 50 years ago. The crime continues today. It must end.

More than a week after devastating earthquakes, millions of people in parts of northwest Syria are still without the help they need.

Areas under opposition control have so far largely had no access to critical search-and-rescue reinforcements and lifesaving aid.

Even before the earthquakes, Syrians were facing one of the worst humanitarian crises since the conflict began in 2011, including a cholera outbreak and rising food insecurity. Most of northwest Syria’s population of about four million, including at least 2.6 million displaced people, relied on humanitarian aid.

Making matters worse, there’s been only one UN Security Council-approved aid corridor from Turkey into the area. The earthquakes and aftershocks then crippled critical roads and infrastructure needed for that lone route.

Until late on February 13, eight days after the first earthquake, the Syrian government, with support from its long-time ally on the Security Council, Russia, rejected the use of other border crossings from Turkey into northwest Syria. They insisted all aid to Syria must come via government-controlled areas.

It looked very much like a continuation of the Syrian government’s long-term policies of weaponizing aid in the conflict.

And when on Monday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad finally issued a temporary authorization for two more border crossings, it was simply too little too late for many people in the region.

(written by Lisa Maier)

Imagine: an independent media outlet releases a documentary critical of a country’s leader, and then the country’s leadership blocks the documentary and conducts “tax raids” in the media outlet’s offices. 

That doesn’t sound like media freedom in a democracy, does it? 

But this exact scenario just unfolded in the world’s largest democracy, India, where the BBC’s offices were raided by tax officials yesterday.

Apparently, the raids were an act of retaliation by authorities for a BBC documentary film that highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to protect Muslims and the discriminatory laws and policies adopted by his government.

The Modi government had earlier blocked the BBC documentary in India and compelled social media companies to take it down. These are very worrying escalations of India’s continuing crackdown on media freedom and civil society groups. 

Modi recently called India “the mother of democracy.” But such actions against free media are about as far from democracy as you can get.

(compiled by Lisa Maier)

• ‘Story killers’ shines a light on industrial disinformation campaigns (The Guardian) 
• Haiti: the dying country (El País, international) 
• Uganda threatens to close UN human rights office (HRW) 
• Gaza: rights groups urge authorities to ensure safety of sisters locked up by father (Middle East Eye) 

Following our top story today, Birgit Schwarz’s weekly Twitter Space audio discussion examines the forced deportations from the Chagos Archipelago and the ongoing crime against the Chagossian people.    

Speaking with her today at 14h00 CET (8am ET) will be expert witness and author David Vine, Chagossian activist Luis Olivier Bancoult, and Mausi Segun, head of HRW’s Africa Division. Tune in at that time or listen to the recording afterwards. 

This newsletter has a new archive page showing all the topics we’ve been covering, day after day.

Have a look through it and tell us: What subjects have we been missing?

Our story last week calling out planned EU and UK meetings with a top official from China’s abuse-riddled Xinjiang region was mentioned in the China Digital Times: “Intense Pushback from Activists Forces Xinjian Governor to Cancel Europe Trip.”