Mauritius Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

Mauritius-France: Mauritius has claimed French-administered Tromelin Island (part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands) since 1976

Mauritius-UK: Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Islands (UK-administered British Indian Ocean Territory)

Trafficking in persons

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Mauritius does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; these efforts included partnering with an international organization to adopt standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral, enhancing screening for trafficking indicators during labor inspections, and adopting a 2022-2026 National Action Plan; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous reporting period, to expand its anti-trafficking capacity; officials did not prosecute any suspected traffickers, did not convict any traffickers, nor report initiating any investigations for the second consecutive year; the government provided minimal services to victims and did not identify any victims for the third consecutive year; officials continued to compel some adult foreign victims to participate in criminal proceedings using threats of deportation and arrest; police regularly investigated potential trafficking cases as other crimes, and prosecutors routinely pursued lesser offenses with lesser penalties in cases initially investigated as trafficking; courts continued to provide lenient sentences to first-time offenders, weakening deterrence; therefore, Mauritius was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Mauritius; girls across the country—particularly from low-income communities—are exploited in child sex trafficking; taxi drivers, sometimes involved in commercial sex networks, knowingly transport child sex traffickers and victims; traffickers may exploit children in sex trafficking on Rodrigues Island, an autonomous territory of Mauritius; members of underserved communities, including individuals in commercial sex, women and children of African descent (Creoles), and LGBTQI+ persons, are vulnerable to sex trafficking, particularly in urban areas; traffickers, including gang members, force Mauritian children and foreign migrants to carry drugs; foreign migrants, particularly Malagasy women, are recruited under false pretenses of employment or tourism but forced into sex trafficking and domestic servitude; previous reports indicate traffickers, in partnership with criminal networks in Russia and Kazakhstan, recruit Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian women to move to Mauritius, under the guise of a marriage agency, then exploit them in sex trafficking; traffickers exploit migrants—primarily from Bangladesh, India, Madagascar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka—in labor trafficking in the garment, textile, manufacturing, and construction industries; labor trafficking is more common in small- and medium-sized businesses that employ migrant workers, primarily from Bangladesh, often recruited by former migrant workers who returned to their country of origin; traffickers may exploit migrant workers aboard foreign-owned fishing vessels in Mauritius’ territorial waters and ports (2023)

Illicit drugs

consumer and transshipment point for heroin from South Asia; small amounts of cannabis produced and consumed locally; significant offshore financial industry creates potential for money laundering