DIEGO GARCIA-Dozens of migrants have been stranded for months on a tiny British territory in the Indian Ocean after being rescued from their struggling fishing boat. They are desperate to leave for a safe place, describing conditions as hellish, but the unusual legal status of the island has left them feeling frightened and helpless.
Early one morning in October 2021, a fishing boat was spotted struggling near the island of Diego Garcia.
The vessel immediately attracted the attention of the island’s authorities - the territory hosts a secretive UK-US military base, hundreds of miles away from any other population, and unauthorised visitors are forbidden.

It soon became clear that the 89 people on board - Sri Lankan Tamils who said they were fleeing persecution - weren’t actually intending to land on the island. They had planned to seek asylum in Canada, a claim backed up by maps, diary entries and GPS data on board, before rough weather and engine problems pulled them off course.
As the boat ran into trouble, one man on board said they started looking for the nearest place of safety. “We saw a bit of light and started sailing towards Diego Garcia,” he told the BBC.
A Royal Navy ship escorted the boat to land, and the group were put into temporary accommodation.
That was 20 months ago. And communication between officials on the island and London gives clues as to why the migrants - some of whom have since attempted suicide due to their dire situation - are still there. Communications in the immediate aftermath of their arrival were obtained through a Freedom of Information request to the Foreign Office by a lawyer representing some of the migrants, and shared with the BBC. They show officials wrestling with what to do about the “unprecedented development”.
Early messages spoke of plans to “investigate repair options to the engine”, but said “we can’t rule out” that the group will try to launch asylum claims from Diego Garcia.
By the next day, that scenario had become a reality.
The Tamils had presented a letter to the commander of the British forces on the island saying they were fleeing persecution, having set sail from Tamil Nadu in India 18 days earlier, and “expressing a wish to be sent to a safe country”.
Many have since claimed to have links with the former Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka, who were defeated in the civil war that ended in 2009, and say they have faced persecution as a result. Some allege they were victims of torture or sexual assault.
An official “information note”, approved in London by the director of overseas territories, Paul Candler, said the “unexpected arrival” of the group had marked the first time asylum had been sought on British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) - the islands’ official name.
It added that, if approached by the media, the official “defensive line” would be that the UK government was “aware of the incident” and was “working urgently to resolve the situation”.
The group “currently have no means of communication with the outside world… [but] with time passing there is a high likelihood news will spread,” it added.
In the coming months, as messages were going back and forth to London, more boats arrived on Diego Garcia. At one point numbers in the camp swelled to at least 150, lawyers estimate, as others arrived on the island from Sri Lanka.