Foreign Workers Struggle in Mauritius

The official tourism website for Mauritius promises that "Mauritius will enchant you, will uplift your soul, making you feel that you belong to the chosen few." However, migrant workers on the island nation located near Madagascar seem to have a very different experience.

A recent article from IPS News shows how workers who come from other countries to work in Mauritius' manufacturing sector, especially in the garment industry, experience conditions akin to "modern slavery." These foreign workers are primarily Indian, Chinese, Bangladeshi, Malagasy, and Nepalese, and many take out large loans in order to pay labor agents who connect them with work in Mauritius. However, most workers struggle to make enough to pay back their loans, cover their most basic living expenses and save a small amount of money for their families.

Workers often live in dorms provided by their employers that are crowded and decrepit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a representative of the Mauritius Export Association blamed the conditions on the workers themselves saying, "We should understand that these people come from poor and dirty countries where hygiene does not exist. They put the dormitories in such a state that one cannot go inside because of the bad smell."

This discriminatory and disrespectful attitude toward foreign workers is also exhibited in the way workers are treated on the job. Many workers report that their wages have been withheld when factories have run out of cash or when they have closed down. Workers who attempt to organize to demand better working conditions face threats from employers that their factories will shut down or that they will be deported before they are able to save enough money to pay back their debts.

Additionally, the International Trade Union Confederation has noted that legislation in Mauritius makes legal strikes extremely challenging to plan, and most of the garment factories are located in Export Processing Zones where it is "very difficult to approach the workers, given also that in most cases trade unionists are denied access to the industrial sites."

For example, the Clean Clothes Campaign documented a 2007 case where a factory producing for European clothing brands paid different wages to foreign workers based on their nationalities, workers' documents were withheld, and they worked over 70 hours a week and lived in cramped dorms where water was rationed. A group of Sri Lankan workers were deported, after being forcibly removed from their dorm and left in a sugar plantation for five days, when they tried to speak out about wage violations.

As a trading partner with the Mauritius, the U.S. government can do more to encourage Mauritius to respect worker rights. As consumers, we need to be sure that when we buy clothes with the "Made in Mauritius" label that those garment brands are ensuring that the factories they source from do not abuse workers in this brutal way. This island paradise should not be a nightmare for garment workers.

Photo credit: timparkinson