The United Kingdom has offered dozens of Tamils held for years on a British-American military island in the Indian Ocean a temporary move to Romania.
Writes UNN with reference to BBC.
The United Nations and the United Kingdom have reached an agreement on the temporary relocation of Tamil migrants from Diego Garcia to Romania. The offer to the migrants was made by British officials on the island on Tuesday. Migrants whose applications for international protection have been approved, as well as families with children staying in the camp on Diego Garcia, will be offered a six-month transfer to a UN-run “safe haven center” in Romania.
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A group of migrants, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils, arrived on Diego Garcia Island in 2021 after their boat was damaged. Since then, they have been held on the island while they seek asylum.
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The Chagos archipelago, which also includes the island of Diego Garcia, was recently returned to Mauritius. The exception is the island in question, which is an important military base for the plans of the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Tamils claimed that they had fled persecution and were attempting to sail to Canada to seek asylum when their boat got into trouble and was rescued by the Royal Navy. Their claims were supported by maps, diary entries and GPS data on board. Since then, the Tamil families have been isolated, and an intensive process of seeking a solution has begun between the two sides.
The offer of relocation to Romania has also been made to eight migrants currently in Rwanda.
One man currently in Rwanda who was offered to move to Romania described it as a “huge relief.” Another migrant said it was “the happiest day in the last three years,” the newspaper reports.