Dugasse, 68, has spent most of her life in the Seychelles and the U.K., wondering what it would be like to set foot on the tropical island of Diego Garcia, part of the remote cluster of atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean called the Chagos Islands.

The governments of Britain and Mauritius have reached a final deal to settle the future of the Chagos Islands but have been barred from signing it by a British judge.