Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASFF) is aware of the numerous decisions in France and Europe granting asylum and refugee status to LGBTQIA+ Mauritian nationals who are victims of human rights violations in Mauritius. Faced with the increasing number of Mauritian asylum seekers in France and Europe seeking legal assistance from ASFF, a report was presented in 2020 by ASFF to the international community (representatives of the European Community and then the United States representative to the UN) concerning the rights of LGBTI minorities in Mauritius entitled:

‘LGBTI Asylum Seekers in Mauritius: Persecution, Denial of Human Dignity and Violations of the Rights of LGBTI Individuals in Mauritius’.

ASFF then supported a fact-finding visit as a follow-up to the above report. This mission was carried out between April and May 2022 by Isabelle Schoenacker Rossi, ASFF's director at the time, and fruitful meetings were held in Mauritius with the Mauritius Law Reform Commission, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies, the Attorney General, academics, private sector economic actors and lawyers. The dramatic situation of a Mauritian woman who was rendered stateless by the Mauritian authorities on the basis of her trans-identity and was consequently granted asylum in France was also discussed. The follow-up report was recently finalised because ASFF was still awaiting the two decisions that the Supreme Court of Mauritius was due to hand down in 2022, as well as their consequences.

ASFF welcomes the exemplary rulings handed down by the Supreme Court of Mauritius in October 2023, which held that Section 250 of the Mauritius Penal Code was unconstitutional insofar as it punishes sexual practices between consenting adult males. The Supreme Court emphasised that Mauritius has ratified international conventions and that local laws must be interpreted as far as possible in line with these international conventions. It pointed out that Mauritius is a secular State and that this law did not reflect the will of the Mauritian legislature but was a vestige inherited from the British colonial period. Finally, the Supreme Court of Mauritius has affirmed that protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation also enjoys constitutional protection.

However, ASFF deplores the fact that no legislative progress has been made despite these rulings and despite the assurance given by the Attorney General in office in 2022. As a result, many LGBTQIA+ Mauritians, including many trans people, continue to face persecution in Mauritius and are forced to seek asylum abroad.

ASFF hopes that the judgments of the Supreme Court of Mauritius in October 2023 will be given full effect and that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in Mauritius will cease so that all persecution which is currently forcing many LGBTQIA+ Mauritians to flee Mauritius to seek refuge elsewhere will cease.

ASFF reaffirms its support for LGBTQIA+ people in Mauritius who suffer violations of their fundamental human rights and for the NGOs that work with them. ASFF remains attentive to developments in the situation and plans further observation and monitoring visits to Mauritius in the coming years with the aim of finding out whether persecution continues and whether developments in Mauritius continue to make LGBTI Mauritians eligible for asylum in France, and more generally, in Europe.