Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on whether islanders were displaced in order for the UK to test nuclear weapons on Kiritimati.

At the time it was selected for nuclear tests, Kiritimati was uninhabited, although indigenous people from the surrounding islands came to Kiritimati to work under the British authorities or on copra plantations. Historic records show these citizens were temporarily evacuated to ships or flown to nearby islands before UK nuclear weapons detonations.