Tromelin

The forgotten castaways

On 31 July 1761 the Utile, a ship of the French East India Company, ran aground on what was then called Île de Sable. It was carrying 160 enslaved Malagasy, bought illegally, to be sold in Île de France, today’s Mauritius. The crew built a makeshift boat and sailed to Madagascar, leaving 80 of the enslaved behind with a promise to come back for them.^[3] Another account puts the number left at about 60, most of whom died within months.^[2]

Nobody came for fifteen years. On 29 November 1776 the Dauphine, commanded by the Chevalier de Tromelin, reached the island and rescued the survivors: seven women and an eight-month-old child.^[3] Tromelin raised a French flag, and the island took his name.^[2] Archaeologists dug there four times between 2006 and 2013 and found a cluster of about a dozen buildings where the castaways had lived, eating mostly terns and turtles.^[3]

Two claims

France claims Tromelin by historical title, saying a French navigator discovered it, uninhabited, in 1722. Britain took control of it in 1810 and in 1954 consented to French control. Mauritius has claimed it since 1976, and its constitution lists Tromelin as part of its territory.^[2] Mauritius argues that when France ceded “the Isle of France and its dependencies” to Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1814, the dependencies included Tromelin, so it should have passed to Mauritius at independence in 1968; France disagrees.^[2] Madagascar and the Seychelles have reportedly claimed it too.^[2]

Much of what is at stake is the sea. France set up an economic zone around Tromelin under a law of 1976, and the islet comes with about 280,000 km² of maritime domain. It lies about 520 km north of Réunion and is run by the administration of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.^[2][1]

“the Isle of France and its dependencies, especially Rodrigues and Les Sechelles”^[2]

A deal that stalled

After some 20 years of talks, France and Mauritius signed a framework agreement on 7 June 2010 to manage the island’s economy, science and environment jointly. France’s Senate approved it in 2012, but parties including the UDI and the National Front objected on grounds of sovereignty, and on 17 January 2017 the government withdrew it from the National Assembly’s agenda, the day before a vote.^[1] Critics feared France could lose its rights to the economic zone, and that a deal could encourage claims to France’s other Scattered Islands.^[2]