Aapravasi Ghat

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Aapravasi Ghat


State Party = MRI
Type = Cultural
Criteria = vi
ID = 1227
Region = Africa
Year = 2006
Session = 30th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1227The Immigration Depot in Mauritius (Hindi: "Aapravasi Ghat") is a dilapidated complex of buildings in Port Louis, which contains scarce remains of the island's first facility to receive indentured labourers from India. Descendants of these immigrants constitute 68 percent of Mauritius' population.

Following the abolition of slavery, the British Empire put into execution an ambitional scheme of replacing African slaves with indentured labourers from other countries, primarily India. The island of Mauritius was the first place where the scheme was implemented. A large portion of the island's population arrived there through a flight of 14 wharf steps, which acquired a symbolical meaning of an entry to a new way of life.

From the complex founded in 1849, only about 15% still exists, including the entrance gateway and hospital block, immigration sheds, service quarters, and the above-mentioned wharf steps. Citing "the undesirable additions of the 1990s" and lack of documentation for comparable sites in Réunion, Trinidad, Durban, the ICOMOS refused to recognize the outstanding universal value of the Aapravasi Ghat in April 2006.

The 2006 session of the World Heritage Committee, however, overruled the expert recommendation and inscribed the patrimony on the World Heritage List as "the site where the modern indentured labour diaspora began".

References

* [http://whc.unesco.org/archive/advisory_body_evaluation/1227.pdf ICOMOS report on the property]
* [http://www.alphavilla.info/aapravasi_ghat.htm The aapravasi ghat] (in French)