TNAG-1218-FCO40-1523-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1983 — Page 77

||

RESTRICTED

4

チ

.

a father born in present day Mauritius or the Chagos) in the

same way as through a connection with the United Kingdom. On

8 November 1965 the Chagos Archipelago was transferred to form

part of the new colony of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Thus before Mauritian independence on 12 March 1968 Mauritius

and the Archipelago were each part of the United Kingdom and

Colonies for the purposes of the 1948 Act and CUKC status was

acquired by virtue of a connection with either. On 12 March

1968 persons who, or whose fathers, had been born, registered or

naturalised before that date in Mauritius, as constituted before

BIOT was formed, automatically became citizens of Mauritius

under section 20 of the Constitution. Thus persons born, or

whose fathers were born, in the Chagos Islands before Independence Day became citizens of Mauritius.

10. When a Dependent Territory attained independence before 1 January 1983, UK legislation normally provided for citizenship

of the United Kingdom and Colonies to be lost by persons who

acquired citizenship of the newly independent country, unless they possessed one or more of specified connections with the United Kingdom or a remaining colony. Accordingly those with a

connection with the Chagos (or BIOT as it had become) retained

their CUKC status and became dual UK-Mauritius citizens.

11.

Persons born in the Chagos Archipelago after the independence of Mauritius became CUKCS. Of these, those whose

fathers were also born in the Chagos would normally have become mono-CUKCS and subsequently mono-British Dependent Territories

citizens under the British Nationality Act 1981. Those whose

fathers were born in Mauritius became dual UK-Mauritius citizens

and would now be dual Mauritius-British Dependent Territories

citizens.

12. It seems likely that most of the Ilois, certainly those

born before 12 March 1968, are now dual Mauritius-British

Dependent Territories citizens. Most of the contract workers

RESTRICTED