SEYCHELLES REALITY

ROYAL Navy engineer Charlie Warrender, who was found dead while on active service in the Seychelles islands, had traces of heroin in his system, it has been confirmed. But it is understood investigators are looking into the possibility that his drink may have been spiked as he and fellow crew members of HMS Richmond visited the island from their ship in May. An inquest opening has heard the 22-year-old former Grimsby student from North Thoresby died from the combined effects of alcohol and heroin intoxication with positional asphyxia. He was found dead at 6.30am near the docks in the main port of Victoria. Seychelles Police said the death was suspicious because the serviceman had a head injury. Toxicology tests later confirmed traces of heroin in his system. Several crew members were out with the engineer technician on the evening before his body was found. The coroner for Grimsby and North Lincolnshire, Paul Kelly, is awaiting a reports from the island police and th...

James Michel Seychelles is a source country for children subjected to sex trafficking and a destination country for foreign men and women subjected to labor and sex trafficking, respectively. Seychellois girls and, according to some sources, boys are induced into prostitution—particularly on the main island of Mahe—by peers, family members, and pimps for exploitation in nightclubs, bars, guest houses, hotels, brothels, private homes, and on the street. Young drug addicts are also vulnerable to being forced into prostitution. Foreign tourists, sailors, and migrant workers contribute to the demand for commercial sex in Seychelles. Eastern European women have been subjected to forced prostitution in private homes. Migrant workers—including those from China, Kenya, Madagascar, and various countries in South Asia—make up 20 percent of the working population in Seychelles and are primarily employed in the fishing and construction sectors. Migrant workers are subjected to ...

Maurice : une inscription sur la liste noire des paradis fiscaux qui passe mal   Rendue publique le mercredi 17 juin 2015 par la Commission européenne, la liste du top 30 des paradis fiscaux "non coopératifs" - dite "liste Moscovici" - inclus plusieurs îles de l'océan Indien, dont les Maldives et les Seychelles, mais aussi l'île Maurice, où la nouvelle fait grincer des dents. À l’image de dirigeants d’autres pays – le Liechtenstein, Guernesey ou les Bermudes –, les autorités mauriciennes digèrent mal le fait de figurer sur cette liste noire des paradis fiscaux. Selon Le Monde , Maurice fait ainsi partie des grands centres financiers offshore qui ont "joint les dirigeants de l’OCDE par téléphone (...) pour exprimer leur courroux". Du côté de l’île sœur, Global Finance Mauritius (GFM) – qui regroupe les institutions et les compagnies engagées dans les services financiers bancaires et non bancaires – estime en effet que "l...

eTN alert of caution on World Travel Awards HALEIWA, HI- After eTurboNews today announced it has canceled its media partnership with the UK-based World Travel Awards with immediate effect, eTN Publisher Juergen Thomas Steinmetz issued the following statement: "eTurboNews no longer authorizes the use of eTN branding or its logos to be used by World Travel Awards. I think it’s safe to say the award scheme and representation communicated by World Travel Awards is misleading, sometimes untrue, and may be interpreted as plain and simple fraud.” Unsuspecting tourism boards, hotels, airlines, and attractions may have been victimized by this scheme over many years. The next award ceremony is scheduled for the Indian Ocean event this weekend at the Kempinski Hotel in the Seychelles. According to the Seychelles Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism no public money was spent. eTN is urging travel industry stakeholders to be careful before investing money to secur...

June 6 2015 at 01:00pm By Fatima Schroeder Cape Town - The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has appointed a curator to take control of the assets of swimwear model Candice-Jean van der Merwe, including bank accounts which contain portions of a $15 million (about R188 million) gift she claimed to have received from an Arab admirer she met at a Seychelles resort for the uber-wealthy. As a result of the court’s order, Van der Merwe has to provide an account of her assets to the curator, Cloete Murray of Sechaba Trust Business Rescue and Insolvency Practitioners, and divulge how she acquired them. Murray is the only person authorised to have any dealings with the assets, the court ruled. Van der Merwe is the daughter of businessman Gary van der Merwe, who is best known for running the Huey Extreme Club which offered joyrides in a Vietnam-era Bell UH-1 chopper. The South African Revenue Service (Sars), which targeted t...

Since the start of his door-to-door visit of hotels in 2014, Alain St.Ange the Seychelles Minister of Tourism and Culture has put a lot of emphasis on visiting every tourism licensed establishments and this ensuring that every small or large hotel establishments and stand alone restaurants were visited. For the first time last week the Ministry of Tourism and Culture introduced a change of strategy in its door-to-door visits and introduced stops with a cultural element to mark what Minister St.Ange says is the consolidation approach of tourism through the development of culture and the protection of culture through a buoyant tourism industry. This change of strategy incorporating culture and tourism within the Minister’s door-to-door visits is a well thought mechanism to illustrate that on the ground, mixing culture and tourism is workable. Visiting small and large tourism establishments on the western side of Mahe, Minister St.Ange, principal secretary for tourism A...