The European parliament has asked the European Union to find a solution to the problem of the Chagossians, president of the Chagos Refugee Group said on Monday.
Olivier Bancoult said the parliament recognized the suffering of the Chagossian people in a resolution last week.
He said he had taken the matter to the European parliament because he was not satisfied with the decision of British courts which had refused to allow Chagossians to settle back in the Chagos Archipelago.
He said the resolution is a slap in the face of the British government.
Bancoult said in its resolution the European parliament said the inhabitants of the three main islands of the archipelago, namely Diego Garcia, Peros-Banhos and Salomon, are living in poverty in Mauritius and the Seychelles and that a decision should be taken so that the Chagossians can resettle in their native lands.
He said he will now use the resolution as leverage to press the demand of his people for compensation for moral and material damage from the British government at the European Court of Human Rights.
The Chagossians were forcibly deported to Mauritius and Seychelles in 1965 by the then British colonial power to make way for an American airforce base.
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