Chagos Islands Debate
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Tania Mathias
Main Page: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)Department Debates - View all Tania Mathias's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Chagos Islands
Tania Mathias Excerpts(8 years, 6 months ago)
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Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con)
I, too, commend the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Dr Monaghan) for bringing this very important matter to our attention. I also commend my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) for his contribution. I just want to add that I consider it a gross injustice to remove 1,500 people against their will. It is a gross injustice then to have an airbase, with a very questionable history in this century, on their land. It is a gross injustice to create a marine protected area without consulting the people who should be there, in their homeland.
I did not know about this matter when I was younger; I wish I had known. I owe thanks to my constituent, George Beckmann, who brought it to my attention. I am honouring a promise that I gave him as a candidate that I would stand up for the Chagos islanders. You deserve your home; you deserve reparation and an apology; and I am very privileged to be in the same room as you today.