Wasn’t it ironic that Mauritius heaved a sigh of relief when Marine Le Pen lost the French presidential election? Outsiders who don’t know us better risk coming to the conclusion that we are a country of humanists. That we, multiculturalists as we are, really believe in France’s old mantra about brotherhood, equality and freedom for all. Outsiders risk assuming that Mauritius is a place where the predicament of immigrants is well-understood. They would consider us non-judgmental, liberal, humane. But would they be right?

Let’s be honest. We are all too happy to defend immigrants – their right to permanent residency, work permits and education – when the debate is about the immigrants of other countries, such as France. When it comes to our own immigrants, commonly known as either expats or foreign workers, that humanism is nowhere to be seen.

Starting with the expats, we question if they should have the right to be in Mauritius at all. Shouldn’t those jobs be given to locals instead? How dare they take our sons’ and daughters’ jobs (who recognised the rhetoric?)? While that, in all honesty, is a fair debate to a certain extent since expats actually are overrepresented in top positions in certain sectors, what we really ought to be ashamed of is our attitude to those we refer to as foreign workers. Because frankly, we don’t give two hoots about the Asians who man our factories, working day and night to do the jobs that no one else wants.

When a group of Bangladeshi workers demonstrated in front of the embassy last week to protest against their harsh working conditions after one of their overworked countrymen had passed away, most of us turned a blind eye. Ironically, it happened at a time when Mauritians were glued to their TV screens, intently following the electoral campaign in France. We condemned Marine Le Pen, mentally slapping her over and over again for her unfair comments about foreigners in her country. We accused her of not being human. The social media joke of the week was a picture of Le Pen next to Voldemort, the villain in the Harry Potter films, suggesting that they might be the same person.

While any attempt at condemning xenophobic politicians, regardless of where they are from, should be encouraged, what was absent from the picture was self-reflection. We failed to wake up and smell the coffee. Had we just used our brains, we would have realised that when it comes to foreigners at home, we are Voldemort, too.

All Mauritians know that while there are local companies that take good care of the foreign workers they hire, abuse is all too common. Too many foreign workers in this country sleep on bedbug-infested mattresses on the floor and have their passports taken away, illegally, by their Mauritian employers. The fact that these human rights violations are so low on our agenda is nothing but Le Pen-ism. Pardon our French.

For more views and in-depth analysis of current issues, subscribe to Weekly for as little as Rs110 a month. Free delivery to your door. Contact us: touria.prayag@lexpress.mu