British Indian Ocean Territory

British Indian Ocean Territory
British Overseas Territory
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  "Limuria is in our trust"[1]
Anthem: "God Save the King"
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Capital and settlement	Administered from London Local government from Camp Thunder Cove 7°18′S 72°24′E / 7.300°S 72.400°E / -7.300; 72.400
Official languages	English
Ethnic groups (2001)	95.88% British / American 4.12% others[citation needed]
Government	Directly administered dependency under a constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Charles III
• Commissioner	Nishi Dholakia (acting)[1]
• Administrator	Bob Fairweather[1]
Government of the United Kingdom
• Minister	Stephen Doughty
Area
• Total	54,000 km2 (21,000 sq mi)
• Water (%)	99.89
• Land	60 km2 (23 sq mi)
Population
• Non-permanent 2018 estimate	c. 3,000 military personnel and contractors
• Permanent	0
• Density	50.0/km2 (129.5/sq mi)
Currency	United States Dollar (USD; de facto)[2][3] Pound sterling (GBP; de jure)[4][5]
Time zone	UTC+06:00
Mains electricity	230 Volt, 50 Hertz
Driving side	right
Calling code	+246
UK postcode	BBND 1ZZ
ISO 3166 code	IO
Internet TLD	.io
Website	biot.gov.io

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an 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 square miles).^[3] The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres (10 square miles), the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States.^[6] Official administration is remote from London,^[7][8] though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.^[9]

The only inhabitants are British and United States military personnel, and associated contractors, who collectively number around 3,000 (2018 figures).^[3] 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 British government to Mauritius and Seychelles, even from the outlying islands far away from the military base on Diego Garcia. Today, the Chagossians are still trying to return, but the British government has repeatedly denied them the right of return despite calls from numerous human rights organisations to let them.^[10][11] The islands are off-limits to Chagossians, tourists, and the media.

Since the 1980s, the Government of Mauritius sought to gain 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. Afterward, both the United Nations General Assembly and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea reached similar decisions. Negotiations between the UK and Mauritius began in November 2022, and culminated in an October 2024 agreement that the UK would eventually cede the territory to Mauritius while retaining the joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.^[12]