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With the end of the health blockade, the Nosy Be archipelago is facing the return of Western tourists attracted by prostitution, particularly minors. An activity little controlled by the State and often perceived as the only solution by families mired in poverty.
For more than two years, the Nosy Be archipelago, in the northwest of Madagascar, was “cut off from the world”. “No cruise ships, no planes,” sighs Elisabetta Gravellino, Italian owner of a bed & breakfast and president of the tourist office. The Malagasy authorities wanted to protect the country’s top destination from Covid. In 2019, Nosy Be concentrated more than half of foreign tourists, 200,000 compared to 350,000 across the whole of Madagascar. The health blockade has just ended and the flow of tourists is surging again, with its bleak side: prostitution and sexual exploitation of minors. The pearl of the Indian Ocean of 321 km² and around 50,000 inhabitants is in fact a mecca for sex tourism. According to the Vonjy center, which helps child victims of sexual violence, 40% of young girls in Nosy Be have had their “first intercourse in prostitution”. Even 45% according to a 2019 survey by the South African University of Kwazulu-Natal on “transactional sex.”
During Covid, Héva (1), 23 years old, braids tied in a bun, had to adapt. “I no longer had a job. So I left for Mada,” says the one who sells sarongs and offers “massages” to tourists on the beach of Ambatoloaka, the seaside resort of the island. Madagascar is a two-hour crossing by motorboat. There, Héva sweated blood and water to cut with a “knife” – a machete – trees used as a scaffold
