Sabrina Jean (born 1973) is a second-generation Chagossian and activist for the Chagossian community to return home to the Chagos Islands in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

, administered as part of the

British Indian Ocean Territory 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 1,00 ...

Background

Sabrina Jean was born in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

, the daughter of Serge Aristide, who was born on the atoll of Peros Banhos in 1950 but left for Mauritius in 1967 when his mother was unwell. When Aristide tried to return to Peros Banhos in the late 1960s and early 1970s he was told that his home had been given to the UK. Jean's father, Serge Aristide, was among the 1,500-plus people forced to leave the British overseas territory when it was leased to the US to build a military base in

Diego Garcia Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a disputed overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands ...

. They were taken in boats to Mauritius and

the Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...

without relocation assistance, and most lived in poverty. Jean moved from Mauritius to the town of

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

in the UK in 2006. Crawley is home to around 3,000 second-generation Chagossians, Britain's largest Chagossian population.

Activism

In Mauritius Jean joined a youth group of Chagossians led by Olivier Bancoult, which brought a sense of community and awareness to the second and third generation Chagossians born in Mauritius. On relocating to Crawley in 2006, Jean became chairperson of the Chagos Refugee Group In 2011 she was allowed by the UK government to visit her home island of Peros Banhos, part of the Chagos Islands for the first and only time, visiting the homeland of her father. Speaking of the atoll, Jean said “There is nothing, just structures of houses and of the church. There is nothing inside. Nothing. It's deserted. It was heartbreaking to see it with my own eyes.” In 2013 Jean helped found the

Chagos Football Association The Chagos Islands national football team is a football team representing the territory of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. However, this area, which falls under the administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory, is uninhabited s ...

and is its current chairperson.

''Another Paradise''

A documentary film by Belgian film director Olivier Magis that chronicles the plight of the Chagossian community in Crawley, '' Another Paradise'', was released in 2019 and features Jean throughout.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jean, Sabrina 1973 births British activists British women activists People from Crawley Living people Mauritian people Chagossian people