Philippe Sands

Leading international lawyer Professor Philippe Sands tells the story of the legal fight against the forcible expulsion of the people of the Chagos Islands by the British, of its impact on people who were forced to leave their homes, and the historic struggle for justice.

Sands explains how Britain in the 1960s secretly offered the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and planned to create a new colony and deport the entire population. Mauritius has been fighting for four decades for the return of the islands. Sands has been involved in the cases of people who were forcibly deported including then newly married 20-year-old Liseby Elysé, who was expecting her first child when she was expelled from the only home she had known. Sands says successive British governments have been trying to make the case go away and have been refusing to submit to international justice.

Sands is professor of Law at UCL and a practising barrister. He has been involved in many of the most important international cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, Guantanamo and the Rohingya. He is author of Lawless, Torture Team, East West Street, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction, and The Ratline.