Mauritians Will Face Further Exploitation by Relaxed Immigration Policies

Mauritius recently signed agreements to relax visa application rules for 75 countries, with 29 of them in Africa, the country's Foreign Minister Arvin Boolell said on Wednesday. The minister who was speaking during the opening of the 6th World Forum on Migration and Development (FMMD) in Port-Louis, said that the citizens of the concerned countries will either not need a visa to visit Mauritius or will obtain a visa upon arrival.  This agreement will mean less job opportunities for the ordinary Mauritian, considering those within lower social classes will be subject to further exploitation by those wealthy businessmen.

"The policy will lead to increased movement and interaction between our people and the African countries," Boolell explained though many would disagree.

He said that Mauritius has always considered migration as an integral part of its sustainable development policies.  Boolell may be referring to the IRS scheme here and because of such migration and developments the house prices within most of the holiday resorts, is unobtainable by the average hard working Mauritian family.

"The Mauritius island was formed by the movement of people from different parts of the world like China, India, Mozambique, Madagascar and France. We are a nation of emigrants and immigrants, "the minister recalled.  Boolell fails to recognize that Mauritians were brought to the island to work and work is what we have done, in order to prove economical stability, we do not want to be exploited by just giving it away.
 

Boolell further said that Mauritius was determined to mobilize the African partners under the FMMD framework to promote the emergency of a more stronger African position on issues of migration.