ISLANDERS EVICTED FOR U.S. BASE CAN'T RETURN HOME

Indian Ocean islanders who were forced from their homes decades ago to make way for a U.S. military base will not be allowed to return, the British government has announced.

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos Archipelago, a British colony, in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an airbase on Diego Garcia.

Chagossians have fought in British courts for years to return to the other islands.

Conservative lawmaker Andrew Rosindell said Thursday that the U.K.'s decision to lease Diego Garcia to the U.S. until 2036 had caused “shock, anger and dismay” among islanders.

The government said it had decided against letting the islanders return “on the grounds of feasibility, defence and security interests and cost to the British taxpayer.”