The directors of a British firm producing tropical fish-themed coins for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) are being threatened with prosecution by Mauritius as the net tightens around the UK’s claim to sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
The family-owned Pobjoy Mint, based in Kingswood, Surrey, has received a formal letter from Mauritius’s attorney general, Maneesh Gobin, telling its owners they are violating international law by manufacturing the currency without the correct legal permission.
The colourful coins, dated 2021, display native aquatic species and bear the Queen’s head on the obverse. They are legal tender on BIOT, struck under licence from the UK government. One of the 50p pieces features an orange and white Chagos anemonefish - as popularised in the film Finding Nemo.
The problem for the mint is that the United Nations’ highest court, the international court of justice, ruled in 2019 that the UK unlawfully detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius before it gained its independence, and must return them.
The Mauritian attorney general’s letter points out that the “issuing of currency is … an exercise of sovereign rights”. By doing so for BIOT, it states, the mint is “assisting in a serious violation of international law” and breaching the criminal code of Mauritius.
The maximum penalties for such an offence in Mauritius are fines of up to 5 million rupees (£84,000) and a prison term “not exceeding 10 years”. There is no extradition treaty between the UK and Mauritius. The Pobjoy Mint has been contacted for comment.
The legal move comes after a similar initiative by Mauritus at the UN’s Universal Postal Union last year. The UPU recognised the validity of international court rulings against the UK and recommended that its 192 member countries “cease the registration, distribution and forwarding of any and all postage stamps issued by the territory formerly known as the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’”.
As well as providing decorations for coins, the abundant natural life in the surrounding seas could bring great potential riches for the islands through either eco-tourism or intensive commercial fishing.
In 2010, the UK government created a marine protected area (MPA) around the archipelago banning all catches. The Mauritian government is drafting a similar MPA regulation for when it eventually takes control of BIOT. It is expected to permit returned Chagossians to take fish for their own subsistence.
This week’s expedition by the Bleu De Nîmes, a converted former British minesweeper, is the first organised by Mauritius into the waters of the disputed archipelago. Among the Chagossians on board was Marcel Humbert, 66.
He is accompanying the survey to show Mauritian officials and scientists examining the outlying Blenheim Reef where Chagossians historically fished in their outrigger sailing canoes.
“We used to catch red snapper, tuna, sharks, parrot fish and kingfish,” he explained. “But always with hooks – not nets. I would love to go back and fish in the Chagos Islands. We had a great knowledge of the sea.”
One crustacean with alarming, predatory capabilities is the metre-wide coconut or robber crab. It has become dominant on some islands since the Chagossians were deported and has been observed hunting and killing seabirds. “You have to be careful,” Marcel added. “Their claws are very powerful. They can cut coconuts in two.”
Traditionally, land crabs were cooked in coconut milk. The oldest surviving Chagossian, now 100 and living in Mauritius, has asked for one to be brought back so she can taste the dish one last time before she dies.