Aapravasi Ghat

Immigration Depot (Hindi for immigration border) was a camp for Indian immigrants to Mauritius in Port Louis. From 1834 it served as a way station for 450,000 people who had accepted as debt slaves working on the sugar plantations of the island and should replace the slaves there, after the abolition of slavery.

2006 Immigration Depot was included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. According to the World Heritage Committee, it is

" " One of the first manifestations of represents what should be a global economic system, as well as one of the greatest migrations in history. " "

History

Debt bondage (English Indentured labor ) refers to a system in which emigrants undertook for several years as a laborer, in return for payment of passage, a small remuneration, and room and board. She was not a new phenomenon in the 19th century; most of the European settlers in the Caribbean and North America had signed such agreements in the 16th and 17th centuries.

When, after the prohibition of slavery in the British Empire, the plantation owners were cheaper labor in search of new forms, the old institution was revived. The emerging economy of Mauritius should serve as a model for other colonies initially. The workers were mostly recruited in Bihar and the Indian north-western provinces and received contracts over five years. Until its prohibition in 1918, the system about Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad and many other expanded to other British colonies.

1849 was the transit camp Immigration Depot, expanded rapidly in the following years in order to accommodate sometimes up to a thousand people simultaneously. As 1871 Einwanderunsstopp for contract laborers to Mauritius was imposed, there were migrants houses that were on the way to Reunion, South and East Africa, the Caribbean and Australia. 1923, the camp was closed.

Today the descendants of Indian immigrants represent 68 % of the population of Mauritius.

Sight

From Immigration Depot today are only a few remnants: the entrance gate and the infirmary, the wall of a residential cottage and the remains of a bath and toilet house. They date from the 1860s. And there is the quay wall, with its 14 steps counted narrow stairs, had to pass all the newcomers. The wharf is no longer adjacent to water today. It is these levels can be interpreted as a symbol of the entire history of immigrants: Who ascended, was on his way to a new life - whether for better or for worse.

Trivia

In memory of the day of the arrival of the first indentured laborers in 1834 November 2 is a national holiday in Mauritius.

22010
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