The CIA World Factbook Every edition, 2016 to 2023 Africa
Trafficking in persons Mauritius, in 7 editions.
The entry for Mauritius published Trafficking in persons in 7 editions of 36, from 2016 to 2023. The text changed in 1 edition. Each is shown as published. Trafficking in persons in every entry.
- edition changed the text
- 1
- the first edition with it
- 2016
- the latest edition with it
- 2023
Published as “Trafficking in persons” (2016 to 2023).
field in that editiontext changed from the edition beforenot in that editionthe edition shownChoose an edition on the strip beside the text, or step through them with the arrows. Mark changes compares it with the edition before: the marks are ours, words added and words removed.
2023 edition
Rewritten since 2021The same text in 6 editions, 2016 to 2021.
- current situation:
- Mauritius is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking;
- Mauritian girls are induced or sold into prostitution, often by peers, family members, or businessmen offering other forms of employment;
- Mauritian adults have been identified as labor trafficking victims in the UK, Belgium, and Canada, while Mauritian women from Rodrigues Island are also subject to domestic servitude in Mauritius;
- Malagasy women transit Mauritius en route to the Middle East for jobs as domestic servants and subsequently are subjected to forced labor;
- Cambodian men are victims of forced labor on foreign fishing vessels in Mauritius’ territorial waters;
- other migrant workers from East and South Asia and Madagascar are also subject to forced labor in Mauritius’ manufacturing and construction sectors
- tier rating:
- Tier 2 Watch List – Mauritius does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
- however, it is making significant efforts to do so;
- in 2014, the government made modest efforts to address child sex trafficking but none related to adult forced labor;
- law enforcement lacks an understanding of trafficking crimes outside of child sex trafficking, despite increasing evidence of other forms of human trafficking;
- authorities made no trafficking prosecutions or convictions and made modest efforts to assist a couple of child sex trafficking victims;
- officials sustained an extensive public awareness campaign to prevent child sex trafficking, but no efforts were made to raise awareness or reduce demand for forced adult or child labor (2015)
current situation: Mauritius is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Mauritian girls are induced or sold into prostitution, often by peers, family members, or businessmen offering other forms of employment; Mauritian adults have been identified as labor trafficking victims in the UK, Belgium, and Canada, while Mauritian women from Rodrigues Island are also subject to domestic servitude in Mauritius; Malagasy women transit Mauritius en route to the Middle East for jobs as domestic servants and subsequently are subjected to forced labor; Cambodian men are victims of forced labor on foreign fishing vessels in Mauritius’ territorial waters; other migrant workers from East and South Asia and Madagascar are also subject to forced labor in Mauritius’ manufacturing and construction sectors
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List – Mauritius does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; in 2014, the government made modest efforts to address child sex trafficking but none related to adult forced labor; law enforcement lacks an understanding of trafficking crimes outside of child sex trafficking, despite increasing evidence of other forms of human trafficking; authorities made no trafficking prosecutions or convictions and made modest efforts to assist a couple of child sex trafficking victims; officials sustained an extensive public awareness campaign to prevent child sex trafficking, but no efforts were made to raise awareness or reduce demand for forced adult or child labor (2015)
The entry for Mauritius did not include 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)
Rewritten: too little of the 2021 text remains to mark the changes.
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)
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Cite this page
Central Intelligence Agency. “Mauritius: Trafficking in persons.” The World Factbook, 2016–2023 editions. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/mauritius/trafficking-in-persons.