LONDON — Indian Ocean islanders who were forced from their homes decades ago to clear the way for a US military base have been told by the British government that they can never return.

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos archipelago, a British colony, in the 1960s and 1970s so the US military could build an air base on Diego Garcia island.

The islanders were sent to the Seychelles and Mauritius, two island nations off Africa’s east coast; many eventually resettled in the United Kingdom.

The Chagossians have fought in British courts for years to return to the islands. In June, the Supreme Court rejected their most recent appeal. The British government said Wednesday it decided against letting the islanders return ‘‘on the grounds of feasibility, defense and security interests, and cost to the British taxpayer.’’

Associated Press