Monthly Archives: June 2022

I.

Victoria, Seychelles

When Olivier Bancoult boarded the ship that was to take him 1,000 miles across the Indian Ocean to the Chagos Archipelagohis childhood home, from which he and his fellow islanders had been expelled 50 years earlierhe carried five wrought-iron crosses. Most of them bore a short inscription, hand-lettered in white paint, memorializing the return of Chagossians to their birthplace. The crosses were to be driven into the ground of Peros Banhos and Salomon, two of the archipelagos once-inhabited atolls. But one cross was different. It was inscribed with the name of Bancoults grandfather Alfred Olivier Elys, and it was destined for an island cemetery. Elys had died in 1969, as expulsions from the archipelago were under way.

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The expulsions were part of an international bargain, though not one that the 2,000 people of Chagos had any say in. The short version: For many years, the archipelago was a faraway administrative appendage of the British colony of Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa. When Mauritius sought independence, in the mid-1960s, Britain decided to keep Chagos for itself. It did so primarily to sequester one of the atolls, Diego Garcia, for use by the United Statespart of a global American ambition, at the height of the Cold War, to establish military outposts in strategic places. Chagos itself was nowhere, but it was equidistant from everywhere: Draw a long line from Madagascar to Indonesia, and another from India to Antarctica, and stick a pin in the blue at the intersection. The catch for Britain was that under international law, the archipelago could be separated from Mauritius only if it had no permanent population.

Chagos did have a permanent populationit had had one for centuries. The Chagossians harvested coconuts and they fished. They had churches of stone. Mossy gravestones go back many generations. But a world away, in the offices of Whitehall and the clubs of St. Jamess, this was a technicality. That the islanders involved were Black made decisions even easier. The conversations might reasonably be imagined, but they dont have to be. Foreign and Colonial Office documents from the period state that, for official purposes, people living in Chagos were to be referred to as transitory contract laborers. The archipelago was described as having no indigenous population except seagulls. Internal documents freely admitted that all of this was a fiction. A few years before Alfred Olivier Elys was laid to rest in the Catholic cemetery on le du Coin, one of the Chagos islands, a comment scrawled on a British document by an official named Denis Greenhill captured the governments outlook: Along with the Birds go some few Tarzans or Men Fridays whose origins are obscure.

One thing at least was true: Governmental fiat had the power to turn fable into fact. For reasons of state, the permanent inhabitants of the archipelago were removed, often with little warning, and typically allowed to bring only a single bag or suitcase or wooden box. The United States, which wanted and endorsed the expulsions, built its military base. The archipelago as a wholeDiego Garcia and some 60 other islands, mainly in the Peros Banhos and Salomon atollswas reconstituted into a colonial entity known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, within which Diego Garcia could nest. Having been detached from Mauritius, BIOT would become both the newest British colony in Africa and the last remaining one.

Uprooted and desperately poor, the Chagossians formed small communities in Mauritius, the Seychelles, and the United Kingdom, with little support from any of those countries. As a remembrance, many kept sand from Chagos in small bowls in their home. On the balance scale of Cold War morality, the sand didnt count for much. But the Chagossians never forgot where theyd come fromor, given that half a century has now elapsed, where their parents and grandparents had come from. Some hoped to return to Chagos, or at least to have that right. Some wanted a path to citizenship in Britain. Most wanted compensation commensurate with their loss.

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Bancoult, who makes his living as an electrician in Mauritius, is the president of the Chagos Refugees Group. He left le du Coin, in Peros Banhos, on March 30, 1968, at the age of 4, taking a small boat from the jetty to a bigger boat anchored in the lagoon. He has an islanders way of using on rather than in to refer to where he comes from: on my birthplace. Bancoult is a large man with a large personality. He is friendly and he is forceful. In the register of his voice, the calm vivisection of British actions can mount by degrees into the more insistent tones of a man who has truth on his side.

Over the years, Bancoult has pressed the Chagossian cause with the Congressional Black Caucus and the pope. Starting in the 1990s, he began looking for cracks to exploit in the edifice of British law. Future historians sifting through musty files in the Public Record Office will find an impressive volume of litigation bearing the name Bancoult. The documents point the way to a tangle of episodesin British tribunals as well as the International Court of Justice (or World Court) and the United Nations General Assembly. In 2019, to the surprise of many, the UN confirmed a finding by the World Court: The creation of the British Indian Ocean Territory had been illegal. The archipelago belonged to Mauritius. The Chagos islanders could turn their eyes toward home.

Which is why, earlier this year, Bancoult and a group of other Chagossians found themselves on a converted British minesweeper, now a private vessel named the Bleu de Nmes, with those five homemade crosses. Theyd also brought bouquets of flowers, asking the crew to keep them cooled. The five Chagossians on the ship were guests of the government of Mauritius, which had an additional agenda of its own for this voyage: to assert its sovereignty over the archipelagoto, quite literally, plant a flag. The voyage was hopeful, if uncertain. The World Court and UN notwithstanding, Mauritian sovereignty is something that London has yet to concede; for all anyone aboard knew, the British might seek to impede the trip in some fashion. Just out of sight, a British patrol vessel shadowed the Bleu de Nmes when it entered Chagossian waters. Jagdish Koonjul, the ambassador of Mauritius to the United Nations, was aboard the Bleu de Nmes; he smiled diplomatically when someone referred to him as a human shield.

We had departed from the Seychelles; typhoons made departure from Mauritius impossible. The ship slipped past the mega-yachts of oligarchs, anchored off Victoria. Mountains receded, then disappeared. Between the Seychelles and Chagos lies nothing but open sea, sometimes rough. Five full days elapsed before the first hint of landshorebirds diving for fish. A few hours later, the Bleu de Nmes reached Peros Banhos, anchoring in its lagoon. Like every atoll, Peros Banhos is the rim of an extinct volcano, this one about 10 miles in diameter. In places the rim emerges sufficiently above water to create a necklace of tiny islands, linked by reefs.

The Chagossians took a launch to le du Coin, where three of the group had been born, and waded onto the smooth, coralline sand. The island is narrow and slightly curved, about a mile and a half long. The white beach was alive with small crabs. Coconuts bobbed in the surf. The Chagossians bent to their knees and kissed the sand, leaving a splay of palm prints. They stood and joined hands, closing their eyes and reciting the Lords Prayer in Kreol, the French-based language of the islands. They concluded the prayer and planted the first of the wrought-iron crosses.

Then they ventured into the dense vegetationcoconut trees heavy with green fruit, flame trees that bloom a brilliant redto seek the remains of their civilization.

The fate of the Chagos Archipelago has rested for centuries in the hands of the Great Powers, whether those powers were moving in, moving out, or just trying to hold onto get some rocks which will remain ours, as Sir Paul Gore-Booth, the permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office, described his countrys intentions in the 1960s. The Chagos Archipelago spreads out across 250,000 square miles, an area the size of Texas; taken together, the islands have a landmass the size of Manhattan. In two weeks at sea, traveling to, from, and among them, we did not see another ship. The recorded history of the archipelago has chiefly been scientific and geopolitical rather than cultural or social. Charles Darwin sailed through in 1836, during the voyage of the Beagle, but his interest lay in coral. For all but one of the islands, there is no longer any human history to record: Everyone is gone. The exception, Diego Garcia, is inhabited by 2,500 American-military personnel and temporary foreign workers, mostly Filipino. That tiny atoll, a single V-shaped island with a central lagoon, is strictly off-limits. Those who have been stationed there describe a place that would resemble the base at Guantnamo Baygyms, fast food, television, snorkelingif Guantnamo were on the moon and the moon were an ocean. Until their expulsion, more than 1,000 Chagossians lived on Diego Garcia. Many accounts of the island by Americans stationed there mention signs of previous habitation: a ruined house here, a crumbling church there, a handful of graveyards. Diego Garcias runway and downtown lie atop two village sites.

Chagos was chanced upon by Portuguese navigators in the 16th century. They mapped the islands and gave some of them, such as Peros Banhos, the names they retain. The Dutch came next, but didnt stay. Chagos eventually came into the possession of France, as did Mauritius and Runion. The French gave names to more of the islands. They imported enslaved workers from Madagascar and Mozambique, and later brought indentured workers from southern India, to labor in coconut plantations. After the defeat of Napoleon, Great Britain acquired Chagos and Mauritius.

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Little changed for the people of the islands, who by then numbered in the several hundreds. In time, after abolition, slavery was replaced completely by indentured servitude; in the 20th century, indentured servitude became low-wage employment by corporate planters. The language of the people remained Kreol. The main religion was Catholicism. Cargo ships provided an occasional connection to Mauritiusat most, four times a year. In the 1960s, as Mauritius negotiated its independence, the Chagos islanders were working for a single company, Chagos-Agalega Ltd., which exported coprathe dried kernel of a coconutalong with the oil pressed from it. The Chagossians had created a distinctive society. They had their own houses, their own boats, their own gardens. Their form of sega music provided the soundtrack for our time at sea.

One evening on board the ship, Bancoult spread out half a dozen well-creased nautical charts, pointing to key features of the archipelago. Starting from the far north: Blenheim Reef, a treacherous marine structure about 20 miles in circumference that has caused the destruction of scores of ships; below that, Salomon atoll, with a dozen small islands around its rim; to the west of Salomon, the larger Peros Banhos atoll, with about 30 small islands; and finally, at the bottom, Diego Garcia, some 150 miles south of Blenheim Reef. Bancoult pointed to where the Chagossians on the ship, all now living in Mauritius, had been born. Suzelle Baptiste was from Diego Garcia. Rosemonde Bertin was from Salomon. Lisbey Elys, Marcel Humbert, and Bancoult himself were from Peros Banhos.

When Chagossians look back at the life they recall, or the life theyve heard about, they conjure an idyllGarden of Eden meets Shangri-la. They use the word paradise. They talk of la vie facile. People ate fish from the sea and shared with one another. There was enough of everything to go around. Could it have been that good? Once, on deck, still a day out from Peros Banhos, I heard two of the Chagossians talking about the remoteness of island life, and how remoteness can produce contentment: What you see is all you know.

The plantation company paid workers both in cash and in food and supplies. It provided small pensions after retirement. There was a certain amount of infrastructure, including electricity in a few places. A Catholic priest traveled among the atolls. A number of islanders learned to read and write; others signed documents with a thumbprint. Photographs of special occasions from a century ago show people of the archipelago wearing dresses and suits.

The islands are certainly beautifulthickly wooded atolls in a turquoise sea as pure as anywhere on Earth. The most startling creature is the coconut crab, which grows to the size of a cat and may drop suddenly from trees. Its claws can take off a finger. They are not a problem, Bancoult explained, if you know how to pick them up, and they are good to eat. Still, the work of the islanders was hard. The rows of tiny stone rectangles in the cemeteries of Chagos tell a story of death at an early age. And as events would show, the existence of the Chagossians as a people was at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

The deal between the United Kingdom and the United States was worked out in secret against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, which Britain had declined to support. As if to make amends, the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson sought to accommodate Washingtons desire for a foothold in the Indian Ocean. In diplomatic memorandums, officials avoided the term military base; the preferred locution was joint communications facility. Diego Garcia seemed ideal. The atolls lagoon could shelter a small navy. The ribbon of land on the western side had room for miles of runwayan unsinkable aircraft carrier. The U.S. naval commander in the Pacific, Admiral John McCain, father of the future senator, described the atoll as the Malta of the Indian Ocean.

At the time, Britain was engaged in negotiations over Mauritian independence. Decolonization was occurring worldwide, and the United Nations had adopted ruleswhich Britain had endorsedabout self-determination and territorial integrity. When it came to Chagos, Britain finessed the self-determination argument through its claim that the islands had no permanent inhabitants, only a floating population of migrant workers. It finessed the territorial-integrity argument by inducing negotiators from Mauritius, meeting in London, to accept dismemberment. As the release of a Downing Street document later revealed, the idea, in dealing with the chief Mauritian negotiator, was to frighten him with hope: Independence could be had, but only if the Mauritians relinquished Chagos.

This approach had the desired effect. Mauritius became independent. Chagos was detached. Because the U.S. wanted no one nearby, the people of Chagoswho did not officially existwere forced to leave. The entire population of Diego Garcia had been removed by the end of 1971. A military base had to be constructed, and the Americans needed the island sanitized and swept, a task that fell to the British. The people expelled from Diego Garcia were not permitted to take their animals; about 1,000 pet dogs had to be left behind. Many followed their owners to the beaches. In his meticulous book about Diego Garcia, Island of Shame, the anthropologist David Vine describes how, at the direction of Sir Bruce Greatbatch, an order came down to eliminate the dogs. Animals that could not be easily poisoned or shot were lured with meat into a copra-drying shed and then gassed with motor-vehicle exhaust.

Bob Hope arrived on the first jet to land on the runway, in 1972, using Diego Garcia to stage one of his Christmas shows for American troops. He flew in with Redd Foxx and Belinda Green, Miss World that year. A British naval officer remains nominally in charge of Diego Garcia and commands a small complement of Royal Marines. But the island is leased to the U.S. through 2036. Vehicles drive on the right.

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As for the Chagossians whod lived there, many were transported to Mauritiuscrowded under tarpaulins on the merchant ship Nordvaer, or packed into the ships sweltering hold along with the copra and coconut oiland more or less left on the docks to fend for themselves. Others made their way to Peros Banhos or Salomon, until an ongoing campaign of attrition made life on those atolls untenable. The plantation company was bought out by the British government and ultimately shut down. Supplies of rice and flour were curtailed. Anyone who made the mistake of leaving Chagosto visit relatives, to see a doctorwould discover, without warning, that going home was prohibited. Bancoult had traveled with his parents, Rita and Julien, and his sister Noellie to Mauritius; Noellie needed urgent medical attention after her foot had been run over by the wheel of a cart and shed developed gangrene. The medical care came too late, and Noellie died. The family prepared to return to Peros Banhos, but were prevented from doing so. Nor could they communicate with people back home: Mail delivery had been halted. Rita did not learn of the death of her father, still in Chagos, for several years. In 1973, those whod clung to Salomon and Peros Banhos were rounded up. People had as little as a day to pack a bag.

The Chagos Archipelago, meanwhile, began its new chapter as the British Indian Ocean Territory. Rather than opening with something along the lines of We the people, the territorys constitution declares, No person has the right of abode. Accompanied by British military personnel, small groups of Chagossians have in recent years been allowed brief heritage visits to some of the islands. A larger group, also under military escort, made a pilgrimage in 2006. On their visits, the Chagossians have used the limited time on each islandnever overnightto clear vegetation from the decaying churches and restore the crumbling graves of their loved ones. They have cleaned inscriptions. They have left flowers. And then they have had to depart.

The British Indian Ocean Territory came to possess all the outward trappings of a colony. Its head of state is Queen Elizabeth. It has a commissioner, in London, who also oversees the British Antarctic Territory. There is a flag. Coins have been issued: The silver 50-pence coin displays the Queen on one side and an orange anemonefish, like Nemo, on the other. The coins are legal tender within the territory, though there is really no place to spend them. British Indian Ocean Territory stamps have been designed and printedfor collectors, or for use at the post office on Diego Garcia. The territory has the internet country code .iofor Indian Oceancreated by an entrepreneur and used extensively by internet start-ups and online-gambling operations. Signs have been posted on some of the islands by the BIOT government. They signal to the very few visitorsmostly owners of mega-yachtsthat they have stepped foot on British territory. Visitors are asked to refrain from littering.

All told, some 2,000 people were displaced from the Chagos Archipelago. At U.S. insistence, the islanders were even barred from working on Diego Garcia; instead, foreign laborers were brought in. The Chagossians had been promised housing and various kinds of assistance, but the promises were not kept. Some settled in the Seychelles, at the time still a British colony, where hundreds were lodged at first in a prison. Those who found themselves in Mauritius settled mainly in Port Louis, the capital. The Chagossians were treated badlyunwanted newcomers, and culturally different from everyone else. They were shunted into the worst urban districts, near garbage dumps and in neighborhoods with high crime. They had skills, but none that were highly valued. Drug use, prostitution, suicideall became serious problems, reflected in sega lyrics and oral histories. The Chagossians were referred to collectively, and pejoratively, as les loisthe islanders.

Were they citizens of any nation? They seem to have thought so. Many of the poorest Chagossian homes in Mauritius displayed a pressed-tin portrait of the Queen. But the United Kingdom in the early 1970s was not generous with passports, especially for Tarzans or Men Fridays, nor is it generous with them now. Those who had been expelled from Chagos did become citizens of Mauritius, if thats where they went, though it didnt feel like home. In time, many also came to hold British Dependent Territories Citizenship, which entitled the bearer to the vague condition of British subject and to a passport, but not the right to live in Britain (or, in this case, to live in the dependent territory).

Only in 2002, after much agitation, did people born on the islands (along with their children, but not their grandchildren) get the right to apply for full British citizenship. Nothing about the status of Chagossians today is uniform: It varies from person to person, generation to generation, place to place. In March, the British government accepted an amendment to proposed legislationwhich recently became lawthat would streamline the citizenship process for anyone of Chagossian heritage, despite fears voiced by some about precedent. (The author of the amendment, Baroness Lister of Burtersett, responded, We are not setting a precedent because I assume we are not planning to evict anybody else.)

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When Bancoult surveyed the domains of the Chagossians with his nautical charts, he left out Crawley, in West Sussex. A quarter century after the expulsion, many Chagossians decided that life in Britain, unfamiliar as it was, might be better than life anywhere else. The first small groups arrived on flights from Port Louis to Gatwick Airport, south of London, in 2002. There were no resettlement officials to meet them, no gift baskets of Marmite and Major Greys. Not knowing what else to do, they camped out in the airport arrival lounge, for days and even weeks. Gatwick is adjacent to Crawley, and the Chagossians began moving into town after the local council grudgingly found some housing.

With great persistence, the Chagossians in Crawley put down roots. Others followed. Today, the number of people in Crawley whose ancestry can be traced to Chagos is about 3,000. Chagossians can still be found at Gatwickthey are a mainstay of the service infrastructure that makes the airport possible, from handling baggage at the terminals to making beds at the hotels. But joblessness is high, as is the incidence of depression and other challenges. Chagossians use a word with the Kreol spelling drasin to describe the experience of being cut off from the past. They use another word, sagren, to capture a deep, wasting sorrow. The term may not appear in medical journals, but it is a diagnosis I heard more than once from Chagossians talking about friends, or about themselves.

During a recent trip to London, I took a train down to Crawley to meet members of the Chagos community, which extends two and even three generations beyond the one expelled from the archipelago. The town is not the kind of place one sees on tourist posters. Crawley grew quickly both because of Gatwick and because the government chose to build tracts of new housing there after the Second World War. The architecture is repetitive and nondescript. The heart of the town is the County Mall Shopping Centre, not some holy well or Norman keep.

The Chagossians in Crawley present no unanimity of opinion about Chagos and their future. Some have been more interested in rights and compensation than in resettlement, and in any case dont harbor warm feelings toward Mauritius. This point of view is articulated on the U.K.-based website Chagossian Voices. Others in Crawley share the same desire for recognition and support, but their views are more in line with those of the Chagos Refugees Group. They are drawn emotionally to the idea of resettlementeven if not necessarily for themselvesand believe it could happen. They would like to set foot on the archipelago one day.

If Chagos possesses anything like a National Archives, it would be the iPhone of Evelyna Bancoult, one of Oliviers daughters. She lives in Crawley with her two young children. Evelynas sister, Jessica, a mother of three, lives in Crawley as well. So do many relatives. When I came to visit, people converged on the home of a cousin of Evelynas to talk about their memories. On her phone, Evelyna pulled up black-and-white historical photos, grainy videos, and recent family pictures. Her grandmother, now deceased, spoke to the room from the phone. In soundless footage, military officers watched Chagossians descend a gangplankthe fading record of a heritage visit. Evelynas quick fingers found news reports, documentaries, press conferences, music. Children playing in the room paused to lean on her shoulder as she sat on a couch, pointing when they saw someone they knew.

The scene was enthusiastic but also serious. The people there felt that few in Britain had their interests in mind. They denounced xenophobic dithering in Parliament over immigration. Fingers jabbed toward my knee for emphasis. Then, calmly, more than one of those in the room brought up the subject of historyhistory in a narrow sense (our history) but also in a larger sense: the responsibility of nations to face their failures.

The Chagossians do not live in any single neighborhood of Crawleyand there are Chagossians in Manchester, Leeds, and other citiesbut you cannot miss the glimmerings of shared identity. They cook from recipes handed down by their mothers and grandmothers, though certain ingredients are hard to find. They draw on extended family networks. The adults have been in England for years, most of them, and speak with a variety of London-area accents, but a cadence of elsewhere is unmistakable. In their homes, what you do not see, because the Chagossians were expelled so suddenly and allowed to bring so little with them, are mementos of life on the archipelago. If Evelyna loses her cellphone, the only physical evidence of the communitys origins may be chromosomes and grains of sand.

Though Id be tempted to include the football jerseys. In 2014, a soccer team representing the Chagos diaspora became a member of Conifa, the Confederation of Independent Football Associationsa version of FIFA for soccer teams not affiliated with that body. Many of Conifas members have a claim to national distinctiveness. The Roma people field a team. South Ossetia, Kashmir, Kurdistan, Tibet, Cornwall, and Western Sahara each field a team. The Chagossian team draws on local players. In recent years, it has twice qualified for the Conifa World Cup.

When I met him in Crawley, Cedric Joseph, the very young goalkeeperhe is 19showed me his gloves, painted with the orange, black, and blue of the Chagossian flag. Three people jumped in to explain the symbolism. The cross talk boiled down to this: Orange is for the plantations and the sun; black is for the dark times; blue is for the sea and the future. Josephs grandmother was born in Chagos; he said he felt sometimes that he was representing her. But really, it was great just to get out there and play. And the team was good. And so was he. He made fun of himself, slipping into a parody of a sports announcers voice: The best, youngest goalkeeper in south England.

Olivier Bancoult has been to Crawley many times, to visit his daughters and to advance the interests of the Chagos Refugees Group. The lawsuits he has filed on behalf of his people have almost all been brought in British courts. Search the internet for the name Olivier Bancoult, and you will scroll through a long list of entries that commence with the tagline Bancoult v. For brevitys sake, lawyers refer to the various cases by the order in which they were filed: Bancoult 2, Bancoult 4.

What Britain did to Chagos provoked legal challenges along two broad tracks. The firstthe Bancoult trackbegan in the 1990s. Whatever their private opinions, Bancoult and his lawyers have never sought to contest British sovereignty before the courts of England. Their focus is human rights under British law. They have contended that the Chagossians were wrongly evicted from their homes and that they have a right to return to their islands. Bancoults first lawsuit went so far as to invoke the Magna Carta, which prohibits forcible expulsion without what today would be called due process. In the face of stiff headwinds, and to general astonishment, he won the case, in 2000. Britains foreign secretary at the time, Robin Cook, announced that he would accept the High Courts decision on the right of return.

But then, less than a year later, came 9/11. Tony Blairs governmentand a new, more compliant foreign secretaryhad no desire to disturb the status quo on Diego Garcia or any of the other islands. The military base was being used as a waypoint for extraordinary renditionand by some reports, as a detention and interrogation sitewhile the War on Terror ramped up. Bombing campaigns against Afghanistan and, later, Iraq would be launched from there. In 2004, the British government used a device called an Order in Councilan archaic procedure allowing ministers to bypass Parliament and wield regal powers that the monarch herself can no longer exercise, but to which she must assentto quash Bancoults victory. None of his subsequent legal actions has been able to restore the right of return. But his follow-on cases have achieved something else: Through the process of discovery, theyve dredged up a mass of historical documents that confirm the cynicism and lies of the governments inner councils. Henceforward, British officials would have to preface remarks about Chagos with a throat-clearing admission that the governments behavior had of course been shameful and wrong.

The second track was the international one: the attempt by Mauritius to get Chagos back from Britain, alleging that detachment had been agreed to under duress. Early efforts got little traction. But then the British government made a mistake. In 2010, Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced that the British Indian Ocean Territory would be turned into a marine protected area and placed off-limits to habitation and commerce (but not to U.S. military operations). Milibands decision was cheered by many environmental organizations. The archipelago encompasses the largest coral atoll structure on the planetthe Great Chagos Bank. Turtles and sharks abound. Fork-tailed frigate birds, among the fastest on Earth, skim by overhead. But Britain wasnt thinking about a National Geographic documentary. A cable to Washington from the U.S. embassy in London quoted a British diplomat stating that no human footprints or Man Fridaysthat language againwould be permitted within the protected area, and admitting privately that the move would put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelagos former residents.

The marine protected area may have been intended as a clever way to cauterize all pending legal disputes involving a right of return, but it in fact gave Mauritius a new, if seemingly unlikely, line of attack through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The government enlisted the assistance of a prominent international and human-rights lawyer named Philippe Sands. Sands is a longtime friend; when he first explained the case to me, a decade ago, he described all of the dominoes that would have to fall. He did not use the word quixotic. Over time, he assembled a legal team from Mauritius, Belgium, India, Ukraine, and the United States.

The legal battle for Chagos lacks the drama of Inherit the Wind or Twelve Angry Men. The dominoes fell, but in slow motion, one every few years. In accordance with the Convention on the Law of the Sea, Mauritius brought its case before a tribunal of international arbiters. The government argued that Britain had no standing to create the marine protected area; Chagos had been illegally detached from Mauritius, and Britain was therefore not the relevant coastal state. The arbitrators agreed unanimously that creation of the protected area was not in accordance with the provisions of the Law of the Sea convention but kicked the sovereignty question to the UN General Assembly, which then weighed in with a lopsided vote: Lets see what the World Court has to say about whether the detachment of the archipelago was legal in the first place.

None of this involved the fate of the Chagossiansnot directlybut many of them believed that if Britains sovereignty were upended, their efforts could be aided. Mauritius had not barred them from their homeland; Great Britain had done that. And the Mauritian government had indicated receptivity to the Chagossian cause. The World Court heard the case in September 2018, and it began by looking at the factual circumstances behind detachment and expulsion. Lisbey Elys, expelled from Chagos when she was not yet 20, gave testimony before the justices. She was a little overwhelmed, she told me, and ever mindful of the fact that she had been chosen to represent all Chagossians. Fearful that she might be nervous speaking directly to the court, she asked for and was granted permission to present a video. It was three minutes and 53 seconds long. Elys, then 65, spoke in Kreol. Seated next to Sands, she watched from a front-row seat in a black suit as the video, with English subtitles, flickered in the Great Hall of Justice.

We boarded the ship in the dark so that we could not see our island. And when we boarded the ship, conditions in the hull of the ship were bad. We were like animals and slaves in that ship. People were dying of sadness in that ship. And as for me, I was four months pregnant at that time. The ship took four days to reach Mauritius. After our arrival, my child was born and died

I maintain I must return to the island where I was born and I must die there and where my grandparents have been buried. In the place where I took birth, and in my native island.

In the end, the World Court declared that Britain was in the wrongthe detachment of Chagos had indeed been illegal because this detachment was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned. The courts opinion was ultimately affirmed by the UN General Assembly, with only six votes in opposition. The Mauritian case was strong. Jagdish Koonjul, its ambassador, made it well. The United Kingdoms European allies were nowhere to be seenBritains hasty, messy exit from the European Union had made sure of that.

The World Courts opinion was advisory, and the U.K. has so far done its best to ignore it. A Royal Navy officer continues to serve as the titular commandant of Diego Garcia. Yachts wishing to transit the marine protected area are still directed to obtain permission from the colonial administration. The United Kingdoms BIOT website is unflappably vague: We remain open to dialogue on all shared issues of mutual interest. A strategic rationale for the British position has not been advanced, other than the open-ended one that defense of the realm requires it. The psychological rationale is obviousshedding the last bits of empire is hard to contemplate. It is the remote-island dynamic in reverse: What you see is all thats left.

But Mauritius can now claim international recognition of its sovereignty over Chagos. As Sands, the Chagossians lead attorney, maintains in a forthcoming book, the British position is eroding, in small steps that may lead to larger ones. Citing the UNs decision, the Universal Postal Union, which governs mail service among nations, has withdrawn recognition of Britains BIOT stamps. The .io domain name is under legal challenge, and the government of Mauritius has asked Google to relabel its maps. It seems inevitable that the International Civil Aviation Organization, which coordinates a variety of essential protocols, will recognize Mauritian control of the airspace over Chagos. The United States still takes Britains side; it is convenient to have an absentee landlord who allows almost anything. But there is a difficulty. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has argued forcefully that Beijing must accept a rules-based order when it comes to the South China Sea. Beijing has a ready response: What about Chagos? Ultimately, American wishes may not need to become an issue. Mauritius has stated repeatedly that it has no objection to the use of Diego Garcia as a U.S. military base. There would have to be a status of forces agreement, as there is for any base on foreign soil, which would set the rules and the rent. An agreement might even accommodate a partial resettlement of Diego Garcia itself; foreign nationals live close to other U.S. bases, sometimes in great numbers.

The time will come when Britain throws in the towel, and it may come soon. When the government of Mauritius decided in February to send a ship into Chagossian waters under its own flagthe ship I traveled onLondons response was annoyed but restrained. It would not fight the Mauritians on the beaches; it would not fight them on the landing grounds. The BIOT patrol vessel that shadowed the Bleu de Nmes kept its distance, though it was visible on radar. We never learned whether the loss of internet service, which started when the ship entered the BIOT zone, had anything to do with its presence. One purpose of the voyagean oceanic survey of Blenheim Reef, relating to a boundary dispute with the Maldiveswas a deliberate challenge: Mauritius shares a boundary with the Maldives only if the Chagos Archipelago is Mauritian territory. Mauritian officials also took the opportunity to pour some concrete, plant some flagpoles, and run up the Mauritian colors on Salomon and Peros Banhos. There were no statues to topple, but someone unbolted and took away a metal sign warning of arrest and imprisonment by the BIOT government for various infractions, such as overnight camping and possession of crabs, dead or alive.

From the April 1899 issue: Growth of the British colonial conception

For Mauritius, asserting a claim to Chagos was a main reason for this expedition. But that assertion dovetailed with the desires of the Chagossians. If the British were no longer in charge, then the prohibition against right of abode was a dead letter. For the first time in 50 years, the Chagossians could go home without asking permission.

The islands of Peros Banhos5.3333 S, 71.8500 Eencircle a crystalline lagoon. From a distance they are low, green smudges that a swell can hide from view. Waves crash on submerged reefs between them. On February 12, as the Bleu de Nmes sailed through a single open channel into the lagoon, Olivier Bancoult stood at the gunwales and began to name the bits of land. For once he seemed a little uncertain. He grabbed Marcel Humbert, a fisherman, to confirm the names. Humbert pointed to each island as he began turning in a circle: Grande Soeur, Petite Soeur, le Poule, le Monptre, le Anglaise, le du Coin ... The shore of le Monptre was marked by a dull-red oblong, the overturned hull of a yacht, beached and bleached for decades. Bancoult had started the day wearing the bright home-field jersey of the Chagos soccer team, but by now he and others from the islands had changed into simple white T-shirts bearing words in black letters: Everyone has the right to live on his birthplace.

The Chagossians knelt on the sand as they came off the launch that had brought them to le du Coin. Some of them held up birth certificatesdestroyed in the course of a riot, theyd been told by British authorities, until Bancoult tracked the records down. The jetty many of them had walked when they left le du Coin was now in ruins; only a small-gauge rail track, once used to transport barrels of coconut oil, held the concrete together. A pair of rusted wheels, joined by an axle, remained on the rails.

The Chagossians led the way inland with a rhythmic whack of machetes. The air was humid and earthy, the ground everywhere an ankle-turning carpet of fallen coconuts. We came to a place where a village had been. I had seen a photograph from the 1960s of the island administrators housewhitewashed walls, cool verandas, a monumental stone staircase ascending from a prim English garden. All that was left was the staircase, rising to nothing and held fast in a tangle of banyan roots, like a temple at Angkor Wat. The roofless stone church held a congregation of palm trees and coconut crabs. The Chagossians labored to clear the buildingit remained a sacred space. Several of them had been baptized within its walls.

We put in the next day at Salomon atoll, this time on an island called Boddam, roughly the same size as le du Coin. The ruins here were even more extensivetin roofs rusted and collapsed; stone walls dank with moss and mold; trees and vines sprouting from windows and doors. From one beam a pair of recently discarded buoys dangled above broken liquor bottles. Crudely painted on the buoys were the names Olga and Ivan. The Chagossians again made their way to a roofless church. They cleared it of vegetation. In one chancel window, a few panes of colored glass had somehow survived unbroken, gleaming in a wooden lattice. Next door, in what had been a clinic, Rosemonde Bertin, born on Boddam, pushed through the foliage and found the dark, damp corner where she had given birth to her first child, in 1972shortly before she and her family were forced to leave.

Later, half a mile away, in the island cemetery, Bertin poured water on an inscription and wiped it with leaves to bring out the name: Mme. Yvon Dyson, ne Denise Rose. Denise Rose was the midwife whod brought Bertin into the world; she herself died in childbirth not long afterward. The cemetery occupied a full acre. Bertin, Bancoult, and others splashed water on more of the weathered slabs to reveal the inscriptions. From 1880: Ici repose Dookiejust that single name, once known to everyone, now a cipher.

Is a repopulation of Chagos even possible at this point? The grandchildren in Crawley, watching Young Sheldon and reading Roald Dahl, may not see a path to the future that leads through Peros Banhos. A study conducted by the British in 2002 concluded that significant development of the islands would be impractical for a variety of reasons, including a possible insufficiency of fresh groundwater. (The study did not consider rainfall.) A second study, in 2015, came to a different conclusion, suggesting that an economy based on coconuts, fish, and a limited amount of tourism could be sustainable. History, of course, has already conducted its own experiment: Although climate change is unpredictable, these islands once supported a population of thousands. On our way to the graveyard on Boddam, a storm blew in with impressive speed, and it rained heavily for half an hour. Sheltering under a tree, machete in hand, Bancoult commented, The British said there was not enough water.

I dont know how realistic any plans may be for Chagos. The Mauritian government has pledged to assist, but has avoided specifics. Its easy to imagine some form of World Heritage Site coexisting with some form of modest development. I do know this: With every encounter, the Chagossians have sought to take the fate of the islands back into their handsto possess the islands by word and deed. They have spent the few hours of every heritage visit tending graves and cleaning churches. On the extended trip in February, when Chagossians could at last travel freely and do whatever they wished, they did the same. They also trapped crabs and fished for red snapper and drank milk from coconuts. As if bouncing on a seesaw, Lisbey Elys sat on the trunk of a coconut tree jutting out over the water. The Chagossians remembered old names and told old stories. As they talked, the rusting wheels on the jetty became a wagon again, rolling back on its track toward the oil press and the drying sheds and a world that was alive.

Mauritius raised flags over islands on this voyage; anthems were sung. The moments were moving: a legal and moral victory, even as Britain harrumphed. But the embrace of the islands by the Chagossians was something different. It had the intimate physicality of love.

This article appears in the July/August 2022 print edition with the headline Back to Chagos.

Original post:

The Chagossians Want Their Islands Back - The Atlantic

MANILA, Philippines While the Philippines tourism industry is now getting up on its feet, the next few years will remain crucial to sustaining its recovery, as well as the collective growth of tourism-related businesses across the 7,641 islands.

The tourism industry has been non-stop in stirring up programs for tourism revival, such as promos from airlines, deals from travel agencies, and new promotional efforts from local tourist sites.

If theres something that can boost the industry in these ever-changing, challenging times, that is internet connectivity.

At the onset of the pandemic, access to the internet and technology offered struggling businesses a lifeline, allowing them to migrate some of their services online.

In the tourism industrys recovery, the internet continues to enable enterprises to conduct business operations smoothlyfrom marketing andcommunications to continuouscustomer service.

Especially for hotels and resorts booked for company conferences and meetings, a good internet connection is a must to provide guests with a seamless experience. Additionally, even emerging travel trends such as work-from-anywhere require connectivity to let tourists do work while traveling.

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But while reliable internet connectivity presents limitless opportunities to businesses, the case wasnt as easy for companies in remote areas that either struggle to find a decent internet connection or remain unserved by internet providers.

Take it from the case of The Dipudo Private Island Resort in Isabela. Situated off the coast of Maconacon, facing the Philippine Sea to the east, the resorts off-grid location makes communication nearly impossible for residents and guests.

Our only solution was to install satellite internet. We first installed with a different company referred to us by a friend. However, that company closed their operations, and we needed a new internet supplier, says Nicole Maguire, who manages the resort.

Bambunet managed to arrange a very quick delivery as our previous internet supplier only gave us two weeks notice that they were shutting down. During that time, I was emailed videos and documents outlining the installation process, shares Maguire.

We were asked to install an app that assisted us in positioning the satellite. We found the setup process easy and did not require a special technician on-site; however, we did have phone support while positioning the satellite, she added.

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Bambunet, powered by Kloche Communications, is a local internet service provider partnered with Singapore-based satellite operator Kacific. It delivers reliable and affordable internet in remote areas through its recently launched Ka-band high throughput satellite, the Kacific 1.

As internet connectivity remains a challenge on many islands and the mountainous sides of the country, the high-throughput satellite of Kacific offers hope and opportunity for these hard-to-reach communities.

But how exactly? Heres satellite broadband internet explained:

Kacific, a next-generation broadband satellite operator, covers the Philippines with high throughput beams and offers high-speed broadband in small 1.2-m antennas or terminal kits, making it simple and quick to install, especially in remote areas.

As a reliable internet solution, even businesses with Fiber internet connections can use this technology as a backup in case of outages in both power and connectivity.

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What it does: Kacific achieves speeds of 85Mbps (70Mbps in download speeds; 15Mbps in upload speeds), with affordable bandwidths offered at affordable rates. This speed is more than enough to run tools and applications your business needs, web browsing, conference calls, and even entertainment.

For bigger businesses and communities, Kacific can even provide 100Mbps in download and 20Mbps in upload speeds for up to 60 users.

Whats new: Making Kacific different from other operators is its use of the next-big-thing in satellite technologyKa-band.

This band has higher frequencies within the range of 26 to 40GHz, making it faster, better, and more affordable than lower satellite bands like Ku-band and C-band, which have only 12 to 18GHz and 4 to 8GHz ranges, respectively.

What this means: In satellite technology, these higher frequencies for Ka-band mean higher download and upload rates that provide you with better internet performance. Ka-band also allows lower prices per MB and good power manageabilityall with smaller antenna sizes.

Fast, easy-to-install and cost-effective satellite solutions like this give remote areas better opportunities to thrive through the help of stable internet connectivity.

Imagine how hard it is for tourism enterprises to operate without the internet. How would staff communicate with guests, enjoy the best experiences, and share their wonderful memories online if they are out of coverage?

Kacifics satellite solutions address this, especially for enterprises challenged with the lack of connectivity services. In fact, Kacific has dedicated spot beams that cover all the remote areasfrom Batanes to Palawan and even all the way to Sulu.

Apart from this, Kacific also has two local teleports located in Subic Bay and Clark as its backup sites to ensure that connectivity remains available even in bad weather.

Kacifics Gigstarter Plans offer internet solutions for rural and remote businesses. These fully managed services and pay-as-you-grow plans give enterprises a low-risk way to connect remote operations and offices with high-speed satellite internet.

At these monthly prices, the connectivity solutions will also ensure that all your staff can access reliable internet for cloud applications, emails, video calls, and internet browsing no matter where they are based.

No tourism business should be left behind as the industry rebounds from its pandemic slump. With internet connectivity playing a crucial role in their recovery, Kacific is on their side to provide reliable, low-cost and high-speed satellite internet.

For fast, affordable satellite internet services in your area, call Bambunet powered by Kloche Communications at 0998 555 3243 or visit http://www.bambunet.com.

For more information on Kacifics satellite technology, visit http://www.kacific.com or contact [emailprotected]

Apply to be a Kacific Authorized Distributor today, visit https://kacific.com/distributor-network to know more.

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Connectivity is crucial for recovery of tourism businesses. Can broadband satellite technology fill in the gaps? - Philstar.com

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Andros has exceeded last years total stopover visitors by 66.5 percent in just the first four months of 2022, it was revealed yesterday, despite airlift woes being the bane of everybodys life.

Dr Kenneth Romer, the Ministry of Tourisms deputy director-general and acting director of aviation, told the Andros Business Outlook conference that the island appeared set for a banner year after attracting some 5,626 air arrivals during the period to end-April 2022.

Disclosing that Andros received a fraction less than 1 percent of all air arrivals received by The Bahamas in 2019, when a record 1.8m stopovers arrived on these shores pre-COVID, he added: We need to change that narrative.

While the pandemics lockdowns and related travel/border restrictions dropped stopover visitors to just 1,982 in 2020, they bounced back to near pre-COVID levels last year at 3,378. And, for 2022, Dr Romer said this number has jumped by two-thirds in only four months to beat 2021s full-year total.

So Andros is already among the leaders in terms of overall foreign air arrivals, the aviation chief. I believe this year, 2022, is going to be the banner year... I believe we are climbing, taking flight, with opportunities for growth in air travel.

Andros niche tourism sectors, such as diving, snorkelling, bird watching, eco-tourism and flats and bonefishing will likely have helped spur this increase, together with the pent-up demand for travel post-COVID and a desire by many vacationers to explore more remote destinations.

However, Dr Romer, who was moderator for the Andros Business Outlooks panel discussions, earlier had to listen while hotel operators and airlines listed multiple concerns and complaints relating to airlift into the island - the sector that falls under his watch.

Michael King-Hew, chief executive and director for Kamalame Cay Private Island Resort and Residences, said simply: Airlift is the issue. It is the constant issue and bane of everybodys life...We either do a good job or a terrible job.

Pointing out that the cancellation of fully-booked flights left passengers, who have already checked out of their resorts, with nowhere to go, he added that reliable, consistent flights and schedules were vital if Family Island tourism is to prosper.

Urging the Government to help accelerate the build-out of airport infrastructure and technology, Mr King-Hew also urged The Bahamas to straighten out its pre-clearance facility in Fort Lauderdale. Asserting that this had been messed around with for two years, he said the pre-clearance experience was magic and you are treated like a superstar but too often persons are having to navigate a crowded airport terminal.

We have to be candid about the terrible state of the airports, Mr King-Hew said, singling out San Andros in particular. With no covered area where passengers can wait for their flights, they either have to wait in a taxi or cluster inside the Customs and Immigration office - especially if it rains. Addressing these issues, he added, would help give Andros the airlift it requires.

Lee Quittner, vice-president of marketplace for Tropic Ocean Airways, backed Mr King-Hew by agreeing that pre-clearance in Fort Lauderdale will be a game changer. It will open up things for us nicely. He added that the biggest opportunity was to try and get ahead of pent-up travel demand and provide the five-star experience travellers are seeking in an environment impacted by post-COVID pilot and plane shortages.

Chad Chorney, the Bahamas programme director for US-based Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventure, a travel agency, identified reliable and consistent air and flight services as being among the top challenges in clients getting to The Bahamas - especially the Family Islands.

With flights and routes cut during the pandemic, he added: I hope that bounces back and increases going forward..... Right now were seeing an increase in air fare prices. Thats a concern to some folks with rising fuel costs, but hopefully thats alleviated.

Cheryl Bastian, owner of Swains Cay Lodge, told the conference that freight challenges were compounding airlift woes. One of the issues is getting our freight in, she said. While our freight providers are pretty good with what they have to work with, its pretty concerning when they cant get it in and expenses are escalating. Thats creating significant challenges and expenses for the bottom line.

A lack of airlift availability, and challenges in getting guests in and out of Andros, represented a further challenge, Ms Bastian added, as she called for Mangrove Cay Airport to be designated as an international port of entry. The lodge proprietor also called on Androsians to become more involved by developing activities for visitors to experience while on the island.

Jeff Birch, the resident family manager for Small Hope Bay Lodge, described the acquisition of middle management at an affordable price as being among his greatest challenge. He added the cost involved in finding someone with the ability to maintain the business at the level you want, and enticing them to move to Andros, was significant.

Originally posted here:

Airlift 'bane of everyone's life' - Bahamas Tribune

Bringing together two of the very best things in life travel and wellness the years buzziest new spas and treatments are fodder for those with a penchant for enjoyment. Across the world, dozens of innovative and exciting experiences have cropped up for 2022, making the decision to book a vacation entirely centered around a spa day all the more of a great idea.

If youre looking to stay closer to home, destinations like Napa Valley, Sedona, and the Hamptons have all experienced a big boom in recent months, with notable openings coming from both established hospitality brands as well as smaller boutique names. Ready to set sail abroad? Good, because theres plenty of spa news happenings overseas coming from iconic regions like the Italian Riviera and English countryside as well as legendary tropical locales including the Maldives and Caribbean. Suffice it to say, if you need a new wellness treatment or spa property to fantasize about, youre bound to find it in the 27 ideas to come. Continue ahead to find out the most talked-about spa openings and treatments of the year and where you should book your next trip to.

The Ranch Malibu shook up the wellness world when it first debuted in 2010 with a seven-day health immersion, receiving numerous awards and attracting celebrity names to the property. Fast forward 12 years and the company has expanded the iconic program overseas. The Ranch Italy at Palazzo Fiuggi Medical Retreat opened its doors in May of this year with a seven-night, eight-day stay that features a four-hour morning mountain hike, nap time, afternoon strength and core training classes, yoga, and a daily massage each day.

This May, Gurneys Montauk Resort & Seawater Spa unveiled its $20 million renovation just in time for the summer season. The 30,000 square foot wellness destination features North America's only ocean-fed seawater pool and the spa was reimagined by architecture Ignacio Alonso, who is previously known for his work on Aire Ancient Baths in New York City. The experience includes a bathhouse, caladium, thermal baths, sauna and steam, a salt room, plus indoor-outdoor treatment suites overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Gurneys also tapped expert Dr. Dennis Gross for the treatment menu as well as leading wellness brands like Biologique Recherche, OSEA, QMS Medicosmetics, Voya, and Aesop.

Originally founded in the 17th century, Canoe Place in Hampton Bays, Long Island is known by locals as the First Stop Out East and has served as a gathering place for generations. The restoration of this landmark is debuting in August and on top of the 20 guest rooms, five guest cottages, and six landscaped acres, it will also include a full-service spa by ONDA Beauty with facial and body treatments.

Architecture buffs already love Arizona Biltmore, A Waldorf Astoria Resort for its Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired design, and the property just completed its healing Tierra Luna Spa and opened the doors to its outdoor Sol Gardenmaking it all the more of a must-visit destination. Guests journey through elements of fire, water, ice, and earth in this breathtaking outdoor space and can even book the new Alchemy Mud & Crystal Bar Experience. This treatment offers a customized mud, chakra oil, and crystal selection plus the blending of oils, gemstones, and muds to apply with a naturally grown and dried luffa.

The Brando is a luxury resort on French Polynesias private island of Tetiaroa and features 35 villas on its white-sand beaches. In March of this year the property launched its Deep-Sea Ice Bath treatment, which immerses guests in cold water drawn from the Pacific Ocean. Ice-cold seawater baths are said to help with everything from improved blood and lymphatic circulation to muscle recovery and joint relief. Oh, and relaxation, too.

The highly anticipated opening of The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad (opening July 2022) will debut with a 6,800 square-foot spa and fitness center, including eight treatment rooms, sauna and steam rooms, and partnerships including one with Augustinus Bader. The location will be in the heart of Manhattans beloved Floral District where, after a spa treatment, guests can enjoy a cocktail on the rooftop bar, sipping 500 feet up in the air.

If the sound of Veuve Clicquot served with a sprinkle of diamond dust piques your interest, youll be pleased to know the spa at Waldorf Astoria Chicago recently unveiled a new facial treatment called The Diamond Experience, featuring a glow facial that uses resurfacing technology to exfoliate and enhance. Afterwards, guests are treated to a Knesko Diamond Collagen Mask with a quartz facial roller and the aforementioned diamond-dusted glass of Champagne.

Sleep tourism is one of the years most popular travel trends and Silversands Grenada is meeting this demand with a new Sleep Program. Yanni Gaspar-Frivaldo, the lifestyle and wellness director at Silversands, focused this program around spa treatments curated to improve sleep patterns. Each package comes with a light healthy meal, both a wellness and fitness class, plus a spa experience comprised of multiple treatments. Take the Day Dreaming package, for example, which is a full day ritual thats entirely conducted in the Gharieni Quartz Sand Bed: Marma Point Scalp Massage, Customized Indian Shirodhara, and a Abhyanga Indian Massage.

Casa Polanco, a luxury villa in Mexico City, opened its doors in June. The rooftop spa overlooks Lincoln Park and glass doors slide open to allow for an immersive treatment experiences (kind of like being in the treetops, you might say). Enjoy services like deep tissue massage, jet lag therapy, deep sleep massage, urban energizing massage, a reiki session, Chakra massage, and volcanic hot stone massage. Follow your treatment up with tea or an herbal infusion on the terrace while enjoying the scenic views.

This June, iconic Hudson Valley hotel Mohonk Mountain House will debut the resorts first outdoor spa treatment room overlooking Lake Mohonk and the surrounding cliffs. Connect with nature in a rustic wooden summerhouse that surrounds visitors with ancient trees and the sights and sounds of nature. On top of services like massages and facials, there will also be mindfulness sessions and experiences, including a sunset sound bath on the moss-covered green roof terrace.

THE SPA at Viceroy Los Cabos is renowned for its powerful spa experiences and this year theyve introduced a number of new rehabilitating and healing treatments, including an Osteopathy and Posture service that combines techniques like massage, mobilization, and body adjustments with acupuncture and craniosacral therapy. A newly launched holistic spa treatment is their Cacao Healing Experience, which includes a cacao drink followed by exfoliation and massage with cacao cream to rev up endorphins. You also wont want to miss the new offering of Sound Healing reflexology massages and meditations.

Making your way to Fiji this year? Book a stay at Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa to experience the propertys newest treatments for 2022, including the Coconut Milk & Honey Firming Ritual its a 135-minute experience that blends Fijan honey and coconut milk to hydrate, nourish, firm, and strengthen. Or go for the Island Journey, which includes a massage, express facial, and an Instagram-worthy soak in a private milk spa jacuzzi.

From June 1 to September 30, you have the perfect excuse to escape to the Italian Riviera because Belmond recently unveiled a partnership with Dior for a new well-being experience. The pop-up spa is named Jardin des Rves Dior (Garden of Dreams) and guests can book face and body treatments that draw on the skills and expertise of Dior skin care. Creative Director of Dior Maria Grazia Chiuri reimagined the brand's toile de Jouy fabric into a leaf-green that now adorns the Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, Portofino gazebos and two decks of the exclusive Bagni Fiore beach club.

This June, THE WELL launched Complete Laser Therapy (C.L.T.) at its flagship New York City location (with its THE WELL at Mayflower Inn location to follow). Its a non-invasive light source treatment that uses a red laser in combination with blue and green LED light. The result? It helps heal skin conditions like rosacea and eczema, works against aging by targeting wrinkles and dark circles, improves texture and boosts elasticity by increasing collagen in the skin.

Wellness junkies are already keenly aware of LAuberge de Sedona thanks to its opportune positioning in the Sonoran desert and unparalleled, unique experiences. This May, they debuted the Turquoise and Sage Hydration treatment that harnesses the healing powers of wild sage, chamomile, lavender, and rosemary. It begins with a dry brush exfoliation followed up by applying sage and turquoise stone infused body butter. Feet and hands are exfoliated with herbal salts followed by warm sage butter and the treatment ends with a glass of rose kombucha and a handmade turquoise bracelet infused with sage as a farewell gift.

Youve heard of farm to table cuisine, but what about skin? The Ocean Spa at Jamaica Inn recently introduced their Farm-to-Skin Foraging experience that immerses guests in the tropical gardens of Jamaica Inn to learn about the beauty benefits of various plants, herbs, and fruits. Forage for a variety of ingredients and create your own Pina Colada Body Scrub (the excursion comes with a 15% discount toward a spa experience).

The new Xkalim Mayan Gourd Massage at Grand Velas Riviera Maya begins with a traditional Mayan blessing honoring the elements of water, wind, fire, and earth followed up by calabash gourds massaged across the body, applying increased pressure to reflexology points. Why gourds? Theyre one of the world's first cultivated plants grown not primarily for food, but for use as containers, so theyre considered to be effective at collecting what doesnt belong by renewing your energy. The therapist also performs a traditional barrida (sweep) of the body with alcohol on a bouquet of herb-of-grace and ends with a massage of the face and head to activate CHI.

Known for its Wabi Sabi design principles, Shou Sugi Ban House in the Hamptons has been a cult favorite wellness destination since it opened in 2019. This year, the property doubles the footprint of its spa and introduces a new exclusive lineup of wellness programming; a highlight being The Embodied Feminine and Sensual Lover with Juliet Lippman, which will be held from July 25 to August 7. Participate in exercises and treatments to help you connect with your desires, diminish your inner-critic, and awaken your deepest senses. The whole point of this activation is to take control of your erotic self-care, which feels reason enough to book a spot today (now!).

The newly opened Hotel AKA Brickell in Miami debuted with Leaf Spa and a slew of holistic treatments for guests to partake in. While there, head for the Alchemist Bar where you can create your own concoction from an assortment of healing herbs and plants to make your very own personalized oils, scrubs, and tinctures. Also, book their Lavender Lymphatic Massage and Vibrant Vichy Body Treatment, which includes a reiki infused scrub to help align chakras.

Sea Containers London is a trendy Southbank hotel thats designed to look reminiscent of a 1920s transatlantic cruise liner (yes, its as fun as it sounds). The property launched their Spring Hedgerow by agua spa earlier this year; a line of sustainable house-made products that are now used throughout the treatment menu. It was inspired by British hedgerows and the indigenous flora found in them and a few seasonal ingredients include dandelion, cleavers, burdock, and nettle leaves.

Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa is nestled in the historic village of Champillon and is known in the region for its wellness portfolio. This year, the property introduces Kobido to its offerings; every weekend, it is performed by expert Jo de Carvalho who is one of the 50 people in the world to have mastered the practice. You can also learn about the benefits of Shiatsu massage on the weekends with renowned chiropractor and Shiatsu specialist Master Koji Okada. Or if you're looking to boost your complexion, the hotel just introduced a new KOS Paris facial treatment thats formulated from plant ingredients such as prickly pear seed and aai berry.

Having just opened in April, The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans has already become a mainstay in the city thanks to its unique treatments, such as The Southern Gentleman. This experience was inspired by New Orleans iconic cocktail, the Sazerac, and is a massage that targets key zones where men often carry tension. The back, neck, and shoulders enjoy a treatment of rye whiskey-infused oil followed by a you guessed it Sazerac (and bar snacks) in the lounge. The spa is also the first establishment in Louisiana to offer products and treatments from French skin care brand Biologique Recherche.

If the words over-water spa bungalow make your ears perk up, youll want to book a trip to Mandarin Oriental, Canouan the property just introduced two of them. Accessible by a quick minute ride on a boat, these spa bungalows include a full indoor suite for the spa treatments, an outdoor balcony overlooking the sea and island, a glass floor that lets you gaze at the clear Caribbean waters, plus a steam shower and dressing room. To make a day of it, the Overwater Wonder experience begins with a guided hike by the resorts in-house naturalist. Afterward, youll pick out your own seafood at the dock with the executive chef and then head to the spa for a signature spa therapy. Later in the day, enjoy a guide snorkeling experience followed by another spa treatment such as an aloe body wrap or foot ritual. Finally, end the day with a sunset cocktail and a private dinner enjoying your catch of the day from the morning dock excursion.

The Maldives is a picturesque destination thats on every nature lovers bucket list. This year, check this beautiful part of the world off of your list with a visit to Patina Maldives, Fari Islands. The propertys FLOW Spa recently introduced unique experiences including a Float Pod and Dream Scapes. The pod is a sensory deprivation therapy where water is heated to skin temperature and statured with Epsom slat to give buoyancy and a floating sensation. Dream Scapes uses sounds, music, entertainment, and guided imagery to relax the floater.

Beginning in May of this year, Elemental Herbology launched a permanent residency at The Cadogan, A Belmond Hotel, London. This natural skin care line is based on the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine and uses plant-powered formulations to powerfully treat the skin. The iconic Chelsea hotel welcomes both resident and non-resident guests to enjoy the new menu of options, including the Five Elements of Nature a treatment inspired by Cadogan Place Gardens, which can be found just opposite the hotel.

If you find yourself in Napa Valley this year, book a restorative stay at the new luxury resort, Stanly Ranch. Located on 712 acres of a private working ranch, the property also includes a wellness destination called Halehouse, which customizes programs and curates targeted treatments designed by leading health specialists and sports experts. If you've got a wellbeing goal, this is the place to take it. Youll also enjoy the spa pool that delivers on expansive views, should that sort of thing appeal.

Looking for a tranquil countryside escape? Head to Englands Fairmont Windsor Park, which opened on January 1 of this year. The propertys elegant spa features a Himalayan salt room, the UKs first multi-person cryotherapy chamber, health assessments including cardiac stress test and lifestyle review, and The Face Bible Clinic, which includes things like facial peels and laser hair removal. Guests can also take a dip in the hydrotherapy pool and enjoy amenities like and ice fountain, barber shop, and fitness classes including boxing and HIIT.

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27 Best New Spas & Treatments Wellness Junkies Should Know About - The Zoe Report

Explorar Hotels & Resorts announced its expansion into the popular island destination of Koh Samui and the cultural island experience of Koh Phangan.

The expansion is part of the hotel group's ongoing rapid growth strategy in Asia and paves the way for one of the region's fastest-growing hotel brands based in Thailand.

Explorar Koh Samui features 125 beachfront rooms, suites, and pool villas, located in the vibrant backdrop of Mae Nam Beach in Bo Phut, home to one of Samui's most stunning sea views and the famed Fisherman's Village. The resort features an incredible infinity pool that overlooks the sea with a swim-up bar, The Market, an all-day dining restaurant that focuses on being local, authentic and healthy, with fun lively events, festivals and market nights for guests.

Explorar Koh Phangan is situated on the golden sands of Haad Rin Nai Beach and offers 75 contemporary guest rooms, suites and villas, with a mixture of sea views and lush gardens with terraces or balcony. Regional cuisine sourced from local farmers, fishermen and markets at The Market, vibrant events throughout the year aligned with the popular Full Moon party, with one of Thailand's most 'Instagramable' sunset vistas at the guests' doorstep. Both properties will focus on a peaceful escape with an adult-only (16+) environment.

Unique to the Explorar Hotels & Resorts brand is 'The Exchange', a social co-working space for the digital nomad, with fast connectivity, charging facilities and premium Starbucks Coffee. The Exchange also serve as a vibrant meeting place to exchange information, quickly grab something to eat, a local snack or something more, and to talk about tales of adventures over a cocktail or local brew with other guests or one of Explorars' crew members during the 'social hour'.

"This continued growth and exciting development shows that Explorar Hotels & Resorts 'experience-driven' and 'social travel' ethos are gaining momentum in this new travel era. We're thrilled to open both Explorar Koh Samui and Explorar Koh Phangan in the coming months. We are excited in the positive interest we are receiving for growth in the South East Asia region." Explains Niels Huby, Co-Founder & Head of Development Explorar Hotels & Resorts.

Tim Sargeant, Co-Founder & CMO Explorar Hotels & Resorts, looks forward to creating an online buzz among travellers with Explorar's unique online community forum called 'The Exchange'. "Social travellers seek to share their experiences with others. We took this opportunity to develop The Exchange Community. This online forum features on our website where guests can post and share their stories about the best places to find local shops, excursions or 'off the beating track' experiences so that researching guests can plan their trips even before arriving. Tim explains.

He further adds that targeting the millennial traveller via strong social media presence is key to the success of both new Explorar locations, "we know that 75% of millennials want to travel abroad versus 50% of other generations, US millennials take approximately 5.6 trips per year versus 4.0 for Gen X, 4.4 for Gen Z, and 3.5 for boomers. Our Marketing team's key focus is to communicate with this demographic using the channels they trust and imbibe in the latest travel trends.

We are very excited to join the Explorar Hotels & Resorts brand and bring two exciting hotel properties back to life in Koh Samui and Koh Phangan; both islands are incredibly unique, raw and experience driven destinations, a perfect fit and pairing to the brand. Gordon Oldham, Owner Explorar Koh Samui, Explorar Koh Phangan.

These exciting signings join Explorar Treehouses El Nido, designed by Underwood Art Factory's award-winning design team. An experience like no other awaits where design meets nature with spectacular treehouses with private pools set in the lush tropical forest of El Nido, Palawan Island in the Philippines.

Explorar Hotels & Resorts' management team continues the group's growth by strategically establishing hotels in key destinations throughout Asia, Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean regions, offering four destination-based themes and unique experiences. Beach, eco, cultural and urban unite the brand and offer the social traveller clear choices for their individual experience.

More:

Explorar to Open on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan Islands - FTNnews.com