Thirty eight years after the war, the Falklands are finally mine-free

The Foreign Office has said the UK has completed its de-mining mission three years early

The Foreign Office has said mines in the Falklands have been de-mined and cleared, meaning the island is now safe for citizens (Guy Marot/FCDO)

The Falkland Islands are now mine-free nearly 40 years after they were laid during the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office confirmed the UK has now met its obligations set by the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and completed its 14-year mission to make the islands in the South Atlantic safe three years ahead of schedule.

It added that signs and fences that were created and constructed after the war ended in June 1982 will now be removed in a local ceremony for islanders, allowing them unrestricted access to beaches, on 14 November.

The dangerous task was undertaken by a demining team from Zimbabwe and supervised by workers at British companies SafeLane Global and Fenix Insight. There are now no anti-personnel mines laid on British soil anywhere in the world.

Wendy Morton, UK Minister with responsibility for the Falklands, said: "This is a huge achievement for the Islands and we must pay tribute to the brilliant team of deminers who put their lives at risk day to day removing and destroying landmines to make the Falklands safe."

A £36million programme has also been launched which will see the UK help remove mines in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

The islands off the southern Patagonian coast have been part of the British Empire since 1833, but the Latin American nation has long felt that the “Islas Malvinas” are illegally occupied and belonged to Buenos Aires.

Led by its military rulers at the time, Argentina launched an offensive and swept into the islands in a surprise attack April 1982, overwhelming a small garrison of 80 Royal Marines in just three hours and forcing a surrender. 

Britain, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, subsequently sent a naval taskforce to the islands, some 8,000 miles from the UK. In June 1982, British forces retook the islands and they remain in British possession. Over the 10-week battle,  649 Argentinians, 255 Britons and three Falklanders were killed.

Argentina and UK relations were restored in 1989.