London
CNN
—
Britain’s government has been temporarily blocked from concluding its deal to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, PA Media reported, after an 11th-hour injunction by a High Court judge.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to return the islands to the African country, while maintaining control of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base, and it had been expected that the deal would be signed off on Thursday.
But shortly after 2 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET on Wednesday), a judge blocked the government from wrapping its negotiations with Mauritius after the deal was challenged by Bertrice Pompe, a Chagossian woman living in Britain who has opposed the deal on human rights grounds.
A hearing will take place later on Thursday morning.
The deal has proven intensely controversial. London is expected to pay billions of pounds to close the deal, and Mauritius is heavily reliant on imports from China, which has raised national security concerns on both sides of the Atlantic.
Grant Shapps, a former Conservative defense minister, told CNN earlier this year that the plan was “insane.”
“(China) will use territory to expand their influence. They will spy,” Shapps told CNN. “A lot of sensitive stuff goes on at British military bases. So you don’t want to be surrounded by potential adversaries.”
Britain has controlled the region since 1814, and in 1965 it split the Chagos Islands from Mauritius before that former colony became independent. London kept control of the archipelago and renamed it as the British Indian Ocean Territory.
It then evicted almost 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to create space for an airbase on the largest island, Diego Garcia, which it leased to the United States.