BIOT Court of Appeal Upholds Ruling on Unlawful Detention of Tamil Asylum Seekers on Diego Garcia
On 16 December 2025, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Court of Appeal upheld the ruling made on 16 December 2024 that the detention of Tamil asylum seekers on Diego Garcia was unlawful. The commissioner's appeal against this ruling was rejected on all four grounds presented.
More than 60 asylum seekers, including 16 children, were detained for over three years in fenced, guarded camps on Diego Garcia under conditions described as prison-like. These individuals arrived after a shipwreck while attempting to reach Canada to seek asylum. Diego Garcia is a UK-US military base located in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia.
The court found that the commissioner’s evidence supporting the appeal was a highly selective exercise. The 2024 ruling by acting BIOT Supreme Court judge Margaret Obi had initially found the detention unlawful, highlighting the prison-like conditions.
If damages are awarded as a result of the appeals process, the UK government faces potential multi-million-pound payouts for unlawful detention. Detention costs were estimated at approximately £108,000 per day, with expenses rising due to delays by the Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary in ending detention and relocating detainees.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stated that Diego Garcia has never been a suitable location for migrants and emphasised that safety considerations were central to their decisions. The government noted that the outcome was not what it wanted and confirmed that the BIOT administration will study the judgment and decide on the next steps.
