We unite communities, heritage, and opportunity for PIOs worldwide. Join a network that connects culture, business, and leadership across more than 40 countries. Aapravasi Ghat is the original immigration depot from where the modern indentured labour diaspora began. Representing the beginning of the ‘Great Experiment’ – introduced by the British government after the abolition of slavery – Mauritiu
s was the first colony to receive indentured labourers under this system. With more than half a million immigrants arriving between 1834 and the 1920s to work in the sugar plantations, most Mauritians are able to trace their ancestors back to this site. Today, less than half of the original immigration depot site as it existed in 1865 survives, but important original structural sections are still standing, including the remains of kitchens, lavatories, a hospital block, housing sheds and an important flight of stairs down which every immigrant passed. After disembarkation, every immigrant was photographed and registered, records of which reside in the Indian Immigration Archives of the Mahatma Ghandi Institute. The site became a National Monument in 1987 and a World Heritage Site 19 years later, and the official commemoration of the arrival of indentured labourers is held here every year in November.
