CHAGOSSIAN SETBACK

The secretary of state’s decision not to exempt British citizens of Chagossian origin from the habitual residence test in deciding whether they were eligible for jobseeker’s allowance and assistance under the Housing Act 1996, Pt 7, was not irrational, the Court of Appeal has held. The appellants were British citizens who originally lived in the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, before they were forced to leave those islands by the British government. The court knocked back their claim that the application of the habitual residence test was discriminatory under the Race Relations Act 1976 and/or the European Convention on Human Rights.