Is this tiny Mauritian island a confidential spy station?

Arnaud Poulay by no means needed to go away the tiny Indian Ocean island of Agalega, however this 12 months he packed his bag and took off, broken-hearted by what he regards because the militarisation of his house.

Until not too long ago, simply 350 folks lived on Agalega, fishing and rising coconuts. Other meals was delivered 4 occasions a 12 months by ship from the capital of Mauritius, 1,100km (680 miles) to the south. A small airstrip was hardly ever used besides in medical emergencies.

But in 2015, Mauritius, an island nation of which Agalega is a component, signed a deal enabling India to construct an enormous 3,000m (3km) runway and a giant new jetty there, as a part of the 2 nations’ deepening collaboration on maritime safety.

However some Agalegans concern this might develop right into a fully-fledged navy presence.

Mr Poulay, a 44-year-old handyman and reggae musician, led a marketing campaign towards the undertaking.

“I love my island and my island loves me,” he says. “But when that base was unveiled, I knew I had to leave.”

Agalega – two small islands protecting 25 sq km, within the south-west Indian Ocean – can be an excellent location for India to watch marine site visitors. And a comparability of satellite tv for pc pictures from 2019 with others taken in July this 12 months exhibits how a lot has modified.

A carpet of palm bushes has made method for the runway, which stretches alongside the backbone of the north island between the 2 predominant villages – La Fourche within the north and Vingt-Cinq additional south.

Two 60m-wide buildings will be seen sitting on a tarmac apron, no less than one in all which could possibly be a hangar to accommodate the Indian navy’s P-8I plane, in line with Samuel Bashfield, a PhD scholar on the Australian National University.

The P-8I is a Boeing 737 modified to hunt and probably assault submarines, and to watch maritime communications. Islanders have already photographed the plane on the airstrip.

To the north-west is the brand new jetty jutting out into the ocean, which Mr Bashfield says could possibly be utilized by Indian floor patrol vessels, in addition to the ship that brings provides to Agalega.

“As newer satellite images become available, we’ll better understand Agalega’s role in Indian Ocean communications,” he says.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies refers back to the facility as a “surveillance station” and says it’s prone to comprise a coastal radar surveillance system just like Indian-built tools elsewhere in Mauritius.

The Indian authorities declined to reply questions on Agalega, and referred the BBC to earlier statements on its web site. In one in all these, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned India and Mauritius had been “natural partners” in maritime safety, dealing with conventional and non-traditional challenges within the Indian Ocean area.

The two nations have had a detailed defence relationship because the Seventies. The nation’s national security adviser, its coastguard chief and the top of the police helicopter squadron are all Indian nationals and officers in India’s exterior intelligence company, navy and air drive, respectively.

Both sides would need the ability to be seen “as one that is more about capacity building than for any overt military use”, says Prof Harsh Pant, of the India Institute at King’s College London.

It’s no secret, although, that India and its Western allies are involved about China’s rising presence within the Indian Ocean.

While it’s common for a big nation to ascertain a navy outpost on the territory of a smaller ally, the development work on Agalega has troubled some islanders.

Quite a few areas, together with a number of the island’s palm-fringed white-sand seashores, have already been cordoned off, islanders say. There are additionally persistent rumours that the village of La Fourche will likely be swallowed by the Indian infrastructure that has grown up round it, and that the ten households who dwell there will likely be compelled out.

“It will become a restricted area completely for Indians,” says Laval Soopramanien, president of the Association of Friends of Agalega.

He fears that “Agalega will become the story of the Chagos islands” – a concern echoed by 26-year-old handyman Billy Henri, who is the son of an Agalegan and a woman expelled from the Chagos islands.

“My mother [lost] her island,” says Mr Henri. “My father will be the next.”

A number of Agalega’s residents are from families scarred by eviction from the Chagos Islands, 2,000km to the east, after the UK government declared them in 1965 to be British territory and granted the US permission to build a communications station on the largest island, Diego Garcia. This gradually became a fully-fledged military base.

Billy Henri fears that the Mauritius government, which owns all land on Agalega and is the only employer, is trying to make conditions so miserable that everyone will leave.

He points to problems with healthcare and education, limited investment in the local economy, a lack of job opportunities, and a ban on local people opening their own businesses.

A Mauritius government spokesman told the BBC that no-one would be asked to leave, and that local people were only prevented from entering the airport and the port – facilities that he said would help the country control piracy, drug-trafficking and unregulated fishing.

Mauritius also denies suggestions that Agalega hosts a military base, saying that the national police are still in full control. However, it acknowledges that India will assist in the “maintenance and operation” of the brand new services, which had been constructed at Indian expense.

The Mauritius and Indian governments say the improvements to sea and air transportation were designed to benefit the islanders and help lift them out of poverty. But local people say this hasn’t happened: there are still only four ferries to the main island of Mauritius every year, and no passenger flights.

Agalegans say they are barred from a new Indian-built hospital, even though a Mauritius government press release vaunted its operating theatres, X-ray machines and dentistry equipment.

Billy Henri says that a boy suffering from cooking oil burns, who needed more help than he could get from the north island’s health centre, was refused entry in October.

“It’s just for Indians!” he says.

The injured boy and his parents were flown to the main island of Mauritius instead. Laval Soopramanien says the boy is still in hospital there, and that the family will remain on the main island until the next boat leaves for Agalega.

The Mauritius government did not respond, when asked to comment on the plight of the boy with burns. The Indian government declined to comment.

In a recent speech to the Mauritius parliament, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the socio-economic development of Agalega was higher than ever on his government’s agenda.

A “master plan” had been drawn up to improve health and education, transport connections and recreational facilities for the island’s residents, and to develop the fishing sector and the exploitation of coconut by-products, he said.

But mistrust is fuelled by the truth that neither India nor Mauritius has revealed the small print of the 2015 memorandum of understanding, so their plans for the long run are unknown.