🇲🇺 Mauritius now counts 51,945 foreign workers, a city's worth of hands

Mauritius now counts 51,945 foreign workers, a city's worth of hands

51,945 foreign workers now hold valid permits, according to official figures frozen at 31 May and tabled in Parliament this week. That is roughly the population of Curepipe, arriving to work. Men account for 46,312 of them; women, 5,633.

Five countries fill almost the entire roster, 97.2% of it, a jump of roughly 4% on the projections issued late in 2025. India leads with 15,840 workers, then Nepal at 14,821, Madagascar at 9,995, Bangladesh at 8,975 and Sri Lanka at 850. The remaining 46 nationalities barely register.

Where they work is just as lopsided. Wholesale and retail trade, vehicle repair included, takes 44.2% of them, and agriculture claims another 29.4%. Add hospitality and those three sectors alone absorb more than 80% of every foreign permit on the island. The figures reached Parliament as three separate filings, one each for headcount, nationality and sector.

A workforce this large and this concentrated is a policy in itself, whether or not anyone set out to write one.

Jeetoo hospital fits the island's first leadless pacemaker

Doctors at Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital implanted a wireless pacemaker on Saturday, a first for any public hospital here. No wires, no pocket, just a capsule the size of a AAA battery sitting straight in the heart. The patient, 87, had already lost two conventional pacemakers to repeated infection, which made the leadless option clearly her safest one.

Dr Cesar Khazen, an interventional cardiologist from Austria, led the procedure with the local team. Such patients once flew abroad. It fits the Visiting Doctors Scheme floated in the budget: bring in the specialist, don't ship out the patient.

It is cheaper than flying the patient out, the know-how also stays behind once the visitor leaves.

Phone records tie a police sergeant to a Rs 94.5M cannabis run

Phone logs are what the drug squad is leaning on. Sergeant Jayesh Gungadin is suspected of tipping off a wanted businessman during a controlled delivery, after 62.5 kilos of cannabis worth Rs 94.5 million landed at Plaisance from England on 4 June.

Investigators say the calls tie him to Sattya Mitra Anand Gajudhur, cast as central to the ring, who allegedly rang the sergeant once officers caught two couriers at the airport. The file is still building.

State land leases get a tighter net after looser years

54 leases for hunting, fishing and ecotourism cover 8,696 hectares of state land, Minister Boolell told Parliament in answer to a question from MP Farhad Aumeer. He noted 48 came under the previous government from 2021 to 2024; just six have followed since, after tighter vetting. The ministry cancelled four in three years for breaches or unpaid dues.

A home of its own for children with severe behavioural needs

The Cabinet has backed an autonomous institution to house and care for children with severe behavioural disorders, acting on a committee's findings across ministries. Until now these children have slipped between services built for other needs. The plan promises one place designed around them, with no budget or timeline yet attached.

Shorts

Children bear the brunt of sexual violence – A 2025 report finds more than six in ten victims of sexual violence in Mauritius are minors.

Convict strikes an officer in open court – A man just given a two-year term hit a police officer during a hearing at the Grand-Port court on 3 July.

Held captive by their own families – Saroojini, abused for fifteen years by her addict son, is one of many older Mauritians trapped at home.

Betamax drops its case against Sinatambou – Worn down by delays, Betamax has withdrawn its contempt complaint against former minister Étienne Sinatambou.

Unions push back on the pension change – Opponents of the pension change meet Tuesday before a rally set for 11 July, union leader Jane Ragoo says.

Rs 8.3 million

The state broadcaster has cleared its copyright arrears to the Mauritius Society of Authors, and now wants a full account of how the money gets spent.

Rs 25 to Rs 40

buys a half kilo of carrots again as retail vegetable prices finally settle after months of climbing; big cabbage is back near Rs 70.

188,000 barrels a day

OPEC and its allies agreed to pump more crude for August, leaning into falling prices and glut fears rather than fighting them.

Morocco reaches a World Cup last eight few African teams ever see

Morocco beat Canada 3-0 to reach the World Cup quarter finals, becoming the first African side ever to get there more than once. France is next, on Thursday in Boston.

For a continent long stuck knocking at this door, a second trip says something about about where African football now stands, and how far it has climbed.

Two Nigerians die in South Africa's migrant violence

Two Nigerians died in anti-migrant violence in South Africa: police killed one in Pretoria, attackers the other in Mpumalanga.

Guinea's autism families fight stigma alone

In Guinea, parents of autistic children battle stigma and thin state support, as misconceptions about the condition persist.

Iran wants a toll on the world's busiest oil chokepoint

Iran plans to charge ships that pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow gateway for about a fifth of the world's oil, an envoy says. China and other friendly states would get special treatment.

Weeks after agreeing to cool tensions there, Tehran is turning the strait into a revenue stream and a lever at once. The message is not subtle. Who pays full price, and who does not, now doubles as a map of its friendships.

Protests meet the AfD as it gathers in Erfurt

Police and protesters clashed in Erfurt as Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany held its congress and extended its leaders' terms.

Pope Leo XIV takes the migrant plea to Lampedusa

On Lampedusa, Europe's main migrant gateway, Pope Leo XIV urged the continent to do far more to shelter those fleeing war and poverty.

On Agalega, the geopolitics stays in the capitals

What do the people actually living on Agalega make of it? Plenty. The opaque accord between Mauritius and India over their island unsettles them, even as a control tower and fuel depot rise.

About the Indian workers there, they are warm. Eight years on, residents call them kind and quick to help, men who came to work, not to redraw a map. The deal is the governments'; the good will is theirs.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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