Arnaud Poulay never wanted to leave the tiny Indian Ocean island of Agalega, but this year he packed his bag and left, heartbroken by what he sees as the militarization of his home.
Until recently, only 350 people lived on Agalega, where they fished and grew coconuts. Other food was delivered by ship four times a year from the capital of Mauritius, 1,100 km to the south. A small airstrip was rarely used except in medical emergencies.
But in 2015, Mauritius, an island nation of which Agalega is a part, signed an agreement that will allow India to build a massive 3,000-meter (3km) runway and a major new jetty there, as part of deepening cooperation between the two countries in the field of maritime security. .
However, some Agalegans fear this could develop into a full-fledged military presence.
Mr Poulay, a 44-year-old handyman and reggae musician, led a campaign against the project.
“I love my island and my island loves me,” he says. “But when that base was revealed, I knew I had to leave.”
Agalega – two small islands of 25 square kilometers in the southwestern Indian Ocean – would be an ideal location for India to monitor maritime traffic. And a comparison of satellite images from 2019 with others taken in July this year shows how much has changed.
A carpet of palm trees has made way for the airstrip, which stretches along the spine of the northern island between the two main villages: La Fourche in the north and Vingt-Cinq, further south.
Two 60-metre-wide buildings can be seen on an asphalt platform, at least one of which could be a hangar for the Indian Navy’s P-8I aircraft, said Samuel Bashfield, a PhD researcher at the Australian National University.
The P-8I is a Boeing 737 modified to hunt and possibly attack submarines, and to monitor maritime communications. Islanders have already photographed the plane on the runway.
To the northwest, the new jetty juts out into the ocean, which Mr. Bashfield said could be used by Indian surface patrol vessels, as well as the ship that brings supplies to Agalega.
“As newer satellite images become available, we will better understand Agalega’s role in Indian Ocean communications,” he said.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies calls the facility a “surveillance station” and says it will likely include a coastal radar surveillance system similar to Indian-built equipment elsewhere in Mauritius.
The Indian government declined to answer questions about Agalega and referred the BBC to previous statements on its website. In one, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India and Mauritius are “natural partners” in maritime security, facing traditional and non-traditional challenges in the Indian Ocean region.
The two countries have had a close defense relationship since the 1970s. The country’s National Security Advisor, the Chief of the Coast Guard and the Chief of the Police Helicopter Squadron are all Indian nationals and officers of India’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Navy and Air Force respectively.
Both sides would like the facility to be seen “as one that is more about capacity building than any overt military use,” said Prof. Harsh Pant of the India Institute at King’s College London.
However, it is no secret that India and its Western allies are concerned about China’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean.
While it is not unusual for a major country to establish a military outpost in the territory of a smaller ally, construction work on Agalega has alarmed some islanders.
A number of areas, including some of the island’s palm-lined white-sand beaches, have already been cordoned off, islanders say. There are also persistent rumors that the village of La Fourche will be swallowed up by the Indian infrastructure that has sprung up around it, and that the ten families living there will be displaced.
“It will become a completely forbidden area for Indians,” said 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, the son of an Agalegan and a woman driven from the Chagos Islands.
“My mother [lost] her island,” says Mr. Henri. “My father will be next.”
A number of Agalega residents come from families scarred by the expulsion from the Chagos Islands, 2,000 km to the east, after the British government declared them British territory in 1965 and the US allowed them to build a communications station. building on the largest island, Diego. García. Gradually this became a full-fledged military base.
Billy Henri fears that the government of Mauritius, which owns all the land on Agalega and is the only employer, is trying to make conditions so bad that everyone will leave.
He points to problems with healthcare and education, limited investment in the local economy, a lack of employment and a ban on local people opening their own businesses.
A spokesperson for the Mauritius government told the BBC that no one would be asked to leave, and locals were only being prevented from entering the airport and port – facilities he said would help the country combat piracy, drug trafficking and unregulated control fishing.
Mauritius also denies suggestions that Agalega hosts a military base and says the national police are still in full control. However, it acknowledges that India will assist in the “maintenance and operation” of the new facilities, which were built at Indian expense.
The governments of Mauritius and India say the improvements in maritime and air transport were intended to benefit the islanders and lift them out of poverty. But locals say this has not happened: there are still only four ferries a year to the main island of Mauritius and no passenger flights.
Agalegans say they have been excluded from a new Indian-built hospital, even as a Mauritian government press release praised its operating rooms, X-ray machines and dental equipment.
Billy Henri says a boy suffering from cooking oil burns and needing more help than he could get from the North Island health center was refused entry in October.
“It’s only for Indians!” he says.
The injured boy and his parents were instead flown to the main island of Mauritius. Laval Soopramanien says the boy is still in hospital there and 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 fate 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 links and recreational facilities for the islanders, and to develop the fishing sector and the exploitation of coconut by-products, he said.
But the distrust is fueled by the fact that neither India nor Mauritius have published the details of the 2015 Memorandum of Understanding, leaving their plans for the future unknown.
