The Guardian (2024): "One mother told the inspectors 'living here is like living in hell,' while children said they dreamed of doing normal things like going on picnics and eating ice-cream. One child said they were sad to see that a guard dog could be outside the fence while they could not."

InfoMigrants (2023): "The first boat carrying some of the Tamil asylum seekers, including alleged torture victims, arrived on the island in October 2021 when British forces rescued 89 men, women and children that had set sail from India in a vessel that was foundering near the island. Some have said the group have links with the former Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka, who were defeated in the civil war that ended in 2009. They claim they have since faced persecution because of those alleged links and some allege they were victims of torture or sexual assault in Sri Lanka. The initial boat was significantly larger than the subsequent vessels, which reportedly were wooden fishing boats. In April and June of last year, two further boats carrying a combined total of 84 asylum seekers, also reached the territory. ... A further two boats arrived in August and October 2022. Despite running into difficulties, both unseaworthy fishing boats were later permitted to leave the territory without basic safety equipment, putting passengers, including several young children, at 'grave risk,' according to lawyers representing the asylum seekers. One of those boats, carrying 46 people, spent three weeks at sea before reaching the French territory of Réunion, while another carrying 35 people, including an 18-month-old child, was escorted back to Diego Garcia after its engine failed. When more boats arrived on Diego Garcia last year, lawyers for the migrants estimated that as many as 150 migrants were being housed in the camp on the island. Over the past 20 months the conditions on the island have continued to deteriorate, with the migrants facing increasingly serious physical and mental health issues, some have since returned to Sri Lanka and a number of migrants are now receiving medical treatment in Rwanda." (InfoMigrants, 13 June 2023, http://tinyurl.com/2yshzh99)