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Chagos Islands team photo
The UN's highest court has deemed Britain's occupation of the Chagos Islands illegal

When he's not playing for the Chagos Islands national team he wears his football jersey whenever he walks around his hometown ofCrawley in West SUS.

I wear the shirt even when I don't train. He says he's proud.

People are asking me questions. People don't know much about the place. I know what happened so I can tell them.

I tell them that it is an island paradise.

Joseph has never seen the land he represents.

He would ask his grandmother to tell him stories about his homeland, but she wouldn't answer.

The Chagos Islands are located in the Indian Ocean. The UK evicted the entire population to make way for a military air base with the United States.

Many of the evicted Chagossians were sent to India. His grandmother was evicted from her mother country by the British and the pain of that was still felt by her.

The story of a football team trying to keep the story of their ancestors alive is almost 6,000 miles away.

Short presentational grey line

Most of the UK's 3,000-strong Chagossian population lives in Crawley, where the first Chagos Islands team was established in the early 20th century. The team joined the international body for national football sides that can't join the world's largest governing body.

In the past, Chagos Islands FC played in a local league, as well as playing against Raetia, a province of the Roman Empire in central Europe, and Sealand, an unrecognized micro nation that claims an offshore platform off the coast of Suffolk. They folded because of financial problems.

Then in 2013, the Chagos Football Association was formed by Sabrina Jean.

Jean's father grew up on the atoll of Peros Banhos. At the age of 17 he left for Mauritius but always planned to return home. He never had the chance. Jean was raised in Mauritius, moving to Crawley in 2006. She became chairperson of the Chagos Refugee Group's UK branch soon after.

Her father did not talk about his childhood when she was a child.

They were traumatised and would try to avoid explaining.

I would watch it with my grandma. She was crying when she told me. I was just curious about what happened.

The Chagos Islands were granted independence by the UK.

In 1965, it was forced to give up the islands in exchange for independence, and now it claims the Chagos Archipelago as its own. The UN's highest court ruled that the UK's occupation of the islands is illegal, but the UK has refused to give up control. When the islands are no longer needed for defence, it will return them.

Jean traveled to the Chagos Islands in 2011. It was a moment of joy, but also a moment of sadness.

She says you can feel it even though you weren't born there. You feel sad.

It was hard to see all the buildings when I was on the island. When you get to my island, you will see the church where I was christened, but there is nothing left.

Jean went to visit the cemetery where her ancestors were buried.

Nobody takes care of it.

The cemetery of the dogs owned by people from the US navy can be seen on the island. There is a grave with the name of the dog on it.

From February 2022: Watch the Mauritian flag being raised for the first time on the Chagos Islands

The football team was a way for Jean to express his identity. She says it was a struggle getting enough players to attend training, but word spread in the community and the team started playing more frequently.

They lost to Panjab and drew with Somaliland. The Chagossian community turned out for home games.

Then in 2016 came the team's biggest moment - at the Conifa World Cup in Abkhazia (a de facto state most countries recognise as part of Georgia).

Teams from the Isle of Man, Kurdistan and Northern Cyprus are part of theConfederation of Independent Football Associations.

Abkhazia and Western Armenia defeated the Chagos Islands. The full-back says the tournament was a success.

He says that when they went to Abkhazia a lot of people didn't know about them.

We want to show what our families have gone through. Football is one way we can show our identity.

It was like an actual World Cup but from unrecognized countries. My best memory was that one.

The results did not change despite the memories. The Chagos Islands were defeated by Yorkshire, Barawa, Matabeleland, and Tuvalu. The year began with a victory over Surrey before defeats by the region of the US and Canada.

Jimmy Ferrar was the new manager in 2019. Some people in the community were hesitant about his intentions.

When I showed up to Chagos, there were a lot of people who didn't know what to think. Ferrar said it.

The Chagossian community is very close-knit. I promised to leave the football association better than I found it. That's one thing I promised to everyone.

The results are starting to improve. The team won the World Unity Football Alliance's World Series last year and beat Barawa on penalties in the final.

No matter where we go, it's always a party. Instruments, drums, singing and dancing are all there. Ferrar will not forget that weekend.

When the whistle went on the final penalty, I thought, "We just did that."

Chagos Islands national team walk out for a match
Goalkeeper Joseph (far right) says he would like to live on the Chagos Islands

There are still problems despite recent successes. Immigration services took some players away for questioning.

Ferrar says that they had to raise thousands of pounds to get the boys a lawyer after they were carted up to a holding center.

It's a constant battle.

In 2002, the British Overseas Territories Act granted British citizenship to resettled Chagossians born between 1969 and 1982. Many had taken the opportunity to move to the UK in the hope of a better life, having faced hardship in Mauritius. Direct descendants of Chagossians who were born on the islands, and who are not already British overseas territory citizens or British citizens, will be able to apply for both forms of British nationality, the Home Office recently announced.

He came to the UK at the age of 13. He didn't know he was Chagossian until he was a teenager. Ferrar persuaded him to join Chagos Islands FC after playing for semi-professional teams in London.

The Chagossian community has been let down by the British government, according to Ramsamy. He thinks they are still treated like second class citizens. Descendants of those who were evicted from the islands should be compensated by the UK, according to him.

He says that they aren't in the same place as other British citizens. We did not want this to happen. We might have some land if we were back on the Chagos Islands. They are waiting for us to leave.

I just lost my grandmother, my grandad is going to die. How many of our native people have died without getting any compensation? I haven't seen anything else besides a British passport. We could have lived in the same place.

My child is two years old. He won't remember this at 15 or 16. My brothers don't know much about Chagos. We are fading as the generations move on.

It's important for the football team to stay on top. It's important that we don't fade away.

Some of the Chagossian community would like to return to the islands one day, while others would like to stay in the UK.

If given the chance, Joseph would move to his ancestors' house.

He says he would be happy there. My grandmother tells me there's no stress. Everyone there was a large family.

He is happy to represent the Chagos Islands between the goal posts.

He has a goalkeeper's glove that has a flag on it and he feels great wearing it whenever he plays.

How proud are you?