Diego Garcia: Stranded mum's three-year ordeal on military island

Shanthi tried her best to create a sense of normality for her children on the remote British island Diego Garcia.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatch LiveHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC InDepthBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsArtsArts in MotionTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersOn secret military island, a mother strives to raise her children normallyBBCShanthi said that the migrant camp, where they lived in these tents for three years, was "like an open prison"It's morning in a makeshift camp on the remote British island of Diego Garcia, and Shanthi's husband has just awoken to find their young children staring through a security fence.

As the children watch an officer and guard dog patrol the secretive island, home to a strategic UK-US military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, they make a stark remark: "Even the dogs have more freedom than us."

"When I heard that I felt heartbroken," he says.

It was a scene that captured their family's predicament - they were stranded on a mysterious military fortress by accident, yet had a son and daughter, aged five and nine, to raise.

In an effort to find normality in the tiny camp they were housed in under constant surveillance, the family found ways to entertain themselves, to study, grow food and celebrate special occasions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9nnr4gel2o

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