British Indian Ocean Territory Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
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| Quick Facts | |
| Capital | administered from London |
| Government | overseas territory of the United Kingdom |
| Area | 60 sq km |
| Population | approximately 1,200 agricultural workers resident in the Chagos Archipelago were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the 1960s and 1970s, but were granted the right of return in 2000, though no timetable has been set; in November 2004, there were approximately 4,000 UK and US military personnel and civilian contractors living on the island of Diego Garcia (July 2006 est.) |
| Calling Code | +246 (Diego Garcia) |
| Internet TLD | .io |
| Time Zone | UTC +6 |
British Indian Ocean Territory is unsurprisingly among the islands of the Indian Ocean, south of India, about halfway between Madagascar and Indonesia.
Contents |
Understand
Established as a territory of the UK in 1965, a number of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) islands were transferred to the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976, leaving only the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago of 2,300 islands. The largest and most southerly of the islands, Diego Garcia, contains a joint UK-US naval support facility. All of the remaining islands are uninhabited. Former agricultural workers, earlier non-indigienous residents in the islands (often referred to as Chagossians or Ilois) were relocated primarily to Mauritius but also to the Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In 2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration order which had excluded them from the archipelago, but upheld the special military status of Diego Garcia. When the Ilois return, they plan to reestablish sugarcane production and fishing.
Climate
Tropical marine; hot, humid, moderated by trade winds.
Landscape
Flat and low (most areas do not exceed four meters in elevation).
Get in
By plane
There is an airport on Diego Garcia.
By boat
There is a harbor on Diego Garcia.
Get around
There is paved road between the airport and the harbor on Diego Garcia.
Talk
Buy
Costs
Eat
Drink
Sleep
Learn
Work
Stay safe
Stay healthy
Respect
Contact
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