Republic of Mauritius- MoU provides for training and social integration of detainees

The signing ceremony was held in Port-Louis, in presence of the Minister of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo and the Commissioner of Prisons, Mr. Karl Mario Nobin.

In her address, the Minister highlighted that one of the core priorities of the Government is to fight against the prevalence of the drug scourge in the country. Government advocates for a zero-tolerance policy to drugs and will spare no efforts in making Mauritius a safer place through effective drug control, she added.

The MoU stems from the recommendations made in the National Drug Control Master Plan 2019-2023 that seeks to address the issue of drugs through a holistic and multisectoral approach, calling upon the involvement of various Ministries and other stakeholders, she added. The signing of the MoU, she emphasised, is an important step forward towards achieving this goal and reiterated the commitment of the Ministry to making our society safer.

According to Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, this agreement offers an excellent opportunity to facilitate social integration for the reintegration of inmates in the community and also to reduce the level of recidivism. She underscored the importance of finding ways to support detainees involved in substance abuse and giving them a chance to rejoin society with the right attitude to create a better life. 

This, she said, can be done through training activities, education and employment, while adding that her Ministry will work with the National Social Inclusion Foundation (NSIF) and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) and relevant NGOs to develop reintegration initiatives to support inmate to rejoin the community. 

Minister Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo underlined that the NSIF will continue to collaborate with NGOs working with persons suffering from substance abuse and that to this end a budget Rs 26.5 million was allocated for the period of 2019-2020. In addition, the institution extended a financial support Rs 8 million for 5 NGOs in 2019 to implement programs in prisons for the benefit of detainees, she said.

As for the NEF, she underlined that it will help detainees enlist themselves on the Social Register of Mauritius so that those found eligible may benefit from empowerment programs. 

The aim is to ensure that they are given skills and outlook needed to create a better life for themselves away from scourge of drugs and to become economically empowered, she said.

As for the Commissioner of Prisons, he underlined that the MPS has signed MoUs with several stakeholders in the past and that there have been many positive outcomes in terms of financial gain, capacity building in the professional skills but little or no significant gain for social integration of detainees. 

He observed that employers have always been reluctant to hire persons who do not possess clean criminal records. He expressed confidence that the MoU will help to address this complicated issue and open more avenues for detainees.

Mr. Karl Mario Nobin further added that if all stakeholders work together in a coordinated manner, it will help usher the rehabilitation thrust in the management of prisons institutions. This, he emphasised, will help improve the prison system from a punitive to a more rehabilitative approach, which offers offenders a second chance and strengthen their reintegration process.