Welcome to British Indian Ocean Territory!
The British Indian Ocean Territory is centrally located in the Indian Ocean, south of the Maldives, about halfway between Madagascar and Indonesia. The main island, Diego Garcia, is a military facility off limits to anyone not on official duty, but some of the uninhabited outer islands can be visited by independent yachters with advance permission.
To quote the British Indian Ocean Territory travel advice through the British Foreign Office: "The British Indian Ocean Territory is not a tourist destination. Access is restricted and a permit is required in advance of travel. There are no commercial flights and permits are only issued to yachts in safe passage. Access to Diego Garcia is only permitted to those with connections to the military facility."
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is a British Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many very small – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi). The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 km2 (10 sq mi), the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States.The only inhabitants are British and U.S. military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 3,000 (2018 figures). The forced removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago occurred between 1968 and 1973. The Chagossians, then numbering about 2,000 people, were expelled by the UK government to Mauritius and Seychelles in order to construct the military base. Today, the exiled Chagossians are still trying to return, saying that the forced expulsion and dispossession was unlawful, but the UK government has repeatedly denied them the right of return. The islands are off-limits to Chagossians, casual tourists, and the media.
Since the 1980s, the Government of Mauritius has sought to regain control over the Chagos Archipelago, which was separated from the then Crown Colony of Mauritius by the UK in 1965 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory. A February 2019 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice called for the islands to be given to Mauritius. Since this, the United Nations General Assembly and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea have reached similar decisions.