London (AFP) - A British court on Thursday paved the way for a government deal on returning the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius, lifting a temporary ban which had forced an 11th-hour halt to an accord being signed.

The agreement would see Britain hand back the Indian Ocean archipelago to its former colony and pay to lease a key US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer had been due to conclude the agreement in a virtual signing ceremony with Mauritian representatives earlier on Thursday.

But in a last-minute pre-dawn court hearing, two Chagossian women, Bertrice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse, won a temporary injunction from London’s High Court on the deal’s progress.

It was an embarrassing turn of events for Starmer, whose government has faced huge criticism over the plan.

After a morning hearing, Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the injunction, saying there was a “very strong case” that the UK national interest and public interest would be “prejudiced” by extending the ban.

He said any further challenges would have to be heard by the Court of Appeal.

The government was expected to announce the deal later on Thursday.

A spokesman said: “We welcome the judge’s ruling today.”

But speaking outside court, Pompe said it was a “very, very sad day”.

“We don’t want to hand our rights over to Mauritius. We are not Mauritians,” she said.

- ‘Forcibly removed’ -

Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.

But it evicted thousands of Chagos islanders, who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.

Pompe, a Chagos Islands-born British national, said in court documents she had been living in exile since being “forcibly removed from the Chagos Islands by the British authorities between 1967 and 1973”.

Others had been forced into destitution in Mauritius, where they had suffered decades of discrimination, she said.

The deal would “jeopardise” the limited the rights she currently enjoyed to visit the islands, including to tend the graves of relatives, she added.

Britain’s opposition Conservatives have condemned the accord as “British sovereign territory being given away” in a “bad deal” for the UK.

Pompe and Dugasse applied to the court to impose the injunction after a leaked newspaper report late on Wednesday indicated the government planned to unveil the agreement.

As around 50 protesters gathered outside the court, the two women’s lawyer, Philip Rule, alleged the government was acting “unlawfully” and argued there was “significant risk” that Thursday could be last opportunity the court had to hear the case.

But Starmer has said that international legal rulings have put Britain’s ownership of the Chagos in doubt and only a deal with Mauritius can guarantee that the military base remains functional.

The base on Diego Garcia is leased to the United States.

It has become one of its key military facilities in the Asia-Pacific region, including being used as a hub for long-range bombers and ships during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

- ‘Sellout’ claims -

“The deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security,” a government spokesperson told AFP ahead of the ruling.

The opposition Conservatives, however, described the deal as a “sellout for British interests”.

“You’re seeing British sovereign territory being given away to an ally of China and billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money being spent for the privilege,” said senior Tory politician Robert Jenrick.

“This was always a bad deal,” he added.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal battles.

The proposed deal would give Britain a 99-year lease of the base, with the option to extend.

The UK government has not said how much the lease will cost but has not denied reports that it would be £90 million ($111 million) a year.

Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has said his country will pursue its fight for full sovereignty over the islands if Washington refuses to support the return.