The last-minute injunction of the High Court judge temporarily bans the government from negotiating the deal in the Chagos Islands.
At 02:25, Mr. BST Gusther Goose granted “interim relief” to two Chagossian women who filed a case in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to attend a virtual signing ceremony with representatives of the Mauritius government on Thursday morning.
The agreement will allow the UK to hand over the Papaya Islands to Mauritius, but allow the UK and us to continue to use the military base located on the Pacific Islands for 99 years.
The UK government has not yet determined the estimated payments that British taxpayers will pay to Mauritius, part of the deal, but is expected to involve billions of dollars.
A government spokesman said in response to the court's injunction: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. This deal is a fitting place to protect the security of the British people and our national security.”
“Since we will hear about this soon, it is inappropriate for us to make any comments,” said Mauritius Attorney General Gavin Glover.
The court will re-examine the case at 10:30 on Thursday.
The legal action was brought by two Chagos women, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe.
Earlier this year, their lawyer Michael Polak said: “The government tried to abandon the Chagosian homeland while failing to conduct formal consultations with the Chagos people, a continuation of the horrible treatment of the authorities in the past.
“They are still the closest people to the island, but their needs and desires are ignored.”
“The defendant shall not take any concluding or legally binding steps to end his negotiations on the possible transfer of British Indian Ocean territory (also known as the Chagos Islands) to bind foreign governments, or to specific provisions of any such transfer,” the judge said in his morning order.
“The defendant will maintain British jurisdiction over British Indian Ocean territory until further orders.”
The order noted that the judge approved the injunction “after considering the claimant’s application for temporary relief in court time” and “after reading the defendant’s response.”
Representatives of the Chagos community are meeting with Stephen Doughty of the Foreign Ministry to discuss the sovereignty of the territory.
The conference is expected to include six representatives from three different Chagossian community groups.
An email sent to delegates earlier this week said: “The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the FCDO's Chagossian project and the new Chagossian contact group.”
In 1965, when Mauritius was still a British colony, the Chagoba Islands separated from Mauritius.
The UK purchased the islands for £3 million, but Mauritius argued that it was illegally donated to the islands in order to gain independence from the UK.
In the late 1960s, Britain invited the United States to build a military base in Diego Garcia and evacuated thousands of people from their homes on the island.
Immigration orders issued in 1971 prevented islanders from returning.
The Chagos Islanders themselves – some in Mauritius and Seychelles, but others who live in Crawley, Sussex, will not speak on the fate of their homeland.
Some are determined to return to live on isolated islands, some are more focused on their rights and status in the UK, while others believe that the status of the archipelago should not be addressed by outsiders.
Mylene Augustin, a member of the Chagos community in the UK, said she hoped the deal would not be signed in its current form, saying she felt excluded from negotiations on the island between the UK and Mauritius.
“Like Bernadette and Bertrice, my father was born in Diego Garcia. It's my legacy,” she said.[The court decision for interim relief] very good. We need to self-determination…we need to have our own rights. ”
Last year, Chagos living in the UK gathered outside Parliament to protest [EPA]
In recent years, Britain has been under increasing international pressure to return the islands to Mauritius, with the top UN courts and general meetings relating to Mauritius’ sovereignty claims.
In the second half of 2022, the former Conservative government began negotiating control of the territory, but no agreement was reached by the time the 2024 election lost power.
After the court intervention, conservative shadow foreign minister Priti Patel said: “Labor's chagos surrender agreement is not good for our defense and security interests, is harmful to British taxpayers and is harmful to British chagossians.”
She said the legal intervention was “for Keir Starmer and [Foreign Secretary] David Lammy.
The British reforms have criticized the deal before. In March, party leader Nigel Farage said the UK would pay Mauritius “coveted” payments and recommended handing over the islands to the United States.
