Dreams, fortunes and drug traffic in the sun: the secrets of Mauritius | M6 | Enquête Exclusive

Luxury hotels, idyllic beaches and sunshine guaranteed: the island of Mauritius is a tourist paradise. Every winter 1 million travellers arrive to enjoy the advantages of this island in the Indian Ocean and among are more and more French. Some, like Beatrice and Joachim even decide to settle here: a dream! However, the tourists never see the hidden face of the island: shantytowns, unemployment and drug traffic… With 25,000 addicts, this tiny territory is the world’s fifth largest consumer of drugs relative to its population. The police lack the means to check the trafficking. The island of Mauritius is also a world centre for the textile industry. But next to the brand-new factories producing for the most famous labels, dozens of small workshops exploit an illegal work force and produce counterfeit garments, destined for the European Union. On Mauritius it is still the white families, descendants of the colonists, who own the majority of agricultural land and hold a good part of economic power. But today, the majority of the population, of Indian origin, also wants to benefit from the money from tourism. New fortunes are being made in the hotel and property industries.