Photo : webshot.

August 26, 2021

Anna Murray 

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency in charge of global postal policies, voted to ban the use of UK stamps on the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago of approximately 3,000 people. The use of British stamps from the Chagos Islands has been outlawed by a meeting of the world's postal unions in Cote D'Ivoire. All mail from Chagos must now bear Mauritian stamps, according to the United Nations postal agency.

This is not the first time a UN body has sided with Mauritius in its dispute with Britain over the islands, a development that weakens Britain's grip on the Indian Ocean archipelago and shifts control closer to Mauritius. Three United Nations bodies have already ruled that the archipelago is part of Britain's old colonial empire and should be handed over to Mauritius immediately since Mauritius' independence from Britain in 1968.

The United Kingdom, on the other hand, has refused on security grounds. Instead, the UK forcibly removed approximately 2,000 people from Diego Garcia, the largest Chagos island, which has served as a military airbase for the US since the 1960s and in exchange for a low-cost missile deal with the US.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2019 that the eviction was unlawful and that Britain was required to end its administration of the islands as soon as possible. The ICJ ruled that the decolonization process had not been completed legally because the Chagos Islands remained under UK control.

The immediate effect of the international postal union vote is that British Indian Ocean Territory stamps will no longer be recognized.