Natives of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean have been dealt a major legal setback in their long-term battle to return home. British forces expelled the islanders forty years ago to make way for a US military base at the archipelago’s largest island, Diego Garcia. The base has been used to launch bombing missions on Iraq and Afghanistan. On Thursday, the British High Court overruled a lower court decision that Chagos inhabitants be allowed to return to every island except Diego Garcia. The US has long campaigned to deny inhabitants the right to return to any of the sixty-five islands. The Chagossians say they may now take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.