Around 60 migrants stranded for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have been brought to the UK.
The Sri Lankan Tamils are allowed to remain in the country for six months, with financial support from the Foreign Office, documents show.
A government spokesman on Monday described the move as a “one-off, due to the exceptional nature of these cases and in the interests of their welfare”.
“This government inherited a deeply troubling situation that remained unresolved under the last administration for years,” the spokesman added.
There were multiple hunger strikes and numerous incidents of self-harm and suicide attempts in response to the conditions on the island.
Some people were transferred to Rwanda for medical treatment after this.
There have also allegations of sexual assaults and harassment within the camp.
Migrants previously told the BBC it was like living in “hell”.
Tessa Gregory of UK law firm Leigh Day, which represents some of the migrants, said it was the “only sensible solution to end the humanitarian crisis” on the island.
“This vulnerable group which includes 16 children have spent 38 months detained in the most squalid of conditions on Crown land… we hope our clients will now be able to seek safe haven and begin to rebuild their lives,” she said.
Most of the group of around 60 migrants have been living in a makeshift camp on Diego Garcia – the site of a strategic UK-US military base – since October 2021, when they became the first people ever to file asylum claims there.
Their arrival into Britain comes as the UK announced in October that it was ceding control of the Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is part, to Mauritius.
But the new Mauritian prime minister has said he has reservations over the deal, which was struck by his predecessor and has still to be signed, and has asked for an independent review.