British Indian Ocean Territory OVERVIEW
Never heard of BIOT and Diego Garcia? Rest easy as few could call you ignorant on that point, let alone for not knowing that the former is short for British Indian Ocean Territory and the latter is not an Argentinian soap star.
In fact, Diego Garcia is the largest island of an uninhabited archipelago that sits halfway between Africa and Indonesia. Having been evicted between 1967 and 1973, the small indigenous population (known as the Ilois or Chagos islanders) is residing chiefly in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but the bitter facts of exile life have pushed the majority into poverty and squalor. The good new is that after a heated battle with the British administration, the Ilois were granted UK citizenship and the right to repatriation. On the flip side,however, relocation back home is hampered by the exclusive U.S lease of Diego Garcia, where a joint U.S.-UK military base was established in the early 70s and used as a refueling and support station ever since the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
BIOT is totally off tourist limits and one needs a really vital reason to be granted entry. If the stationed personnel withdraws one day, although it's a big if, the paradisaical atolls with their swathes of coconut trees and strictly protected fauna habitats will be by far the most completely intact territories on Earth. And may God let it stay like that.
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