Seychelles uncovered: Heroin crisis in paradise

DW (English)

Beneath the beauty, the Seychelles harbors a shocking secret: It's estimated around 10% of the adult population is addicted to heroin. Drug trafficking and corruption reign.

Transcript

00:00A seemingly perfect paradise, next to living hell.

00:10Turquoise waters, besides desperate drug addicts.

00:18In the Seychelles, one in ten adults is addicted to heroin, that makes it the world's most

00:22heroin-dependent nation.

00:30Why are these gorgeous islands such a drug hotspot?

00:33In our investigations, we met with members of the Coast Guard, addicts and dealers.

00:37And we uncover the Seychelles' dark secret.

00:53Meet Gigi.

00:54She's five months pregnant, expecting a baby girl.

00:58Gigi started using heroin when she was a teenager.

01:01At first, she smoked it, then started injecting it.

01:05Her addiction is strong, stopping impossible.

01:14Does she worry about her unborn child?

01:23If you have a heart, it will hurt, you know?

01:26And money is tight.

01:27I have to sell myself, for me to get money.

01:40Gigi, everybody is looking at you.

01:43Everybody is pointing at you.

01:45Bad, bad, bad.

01:47You are a criminal.

01:48You are like a piece of scabies, a piece of shit.

01:53There's something you need to put you down.

01:58Sometimes no friend, no family, nothing.

02:01Only yourself.

02:05We'll return to Gigi in a bit.

02:07But first, let's try to understand just how big the Seychelles' drug problem is.

02:16As mentioned, nearly every tenth person of the working population is addicted,

02:20according to a government survey.

02:22Ten percent is a very high number.

02:24It's a number that's much higher than in the United States.

02:29This is Wanda Feller-Brown.

02:30She's done extensive research on drug trafficking.

02:34It's a very, very significant situation,

02:38with massive consequences for not just the quality of individuals,

02:42but, for example, the health of a workforce.

02:46The effect of heroin is severe.

02:48Users get an immediate sense of euphoria,

02:51followed by a deep slump, making the drug highly addictive

02:55and one of the deadliest in the world due to its high potential for overdose.

03:04We're back with Gigi and her friend, whom we'll call Bobo.

03:11He wanted to stay anonymous to protect his identity.

03:14You will soon find out why.

03:16The two take heroin together regularly.

03:19He calls her his doctor, because without her, he cannot inject anymore.

03:24He has used all the veins reachable to him.

03:27They are now too scarred to be used.

03:38Heavy withdrawal symptoms like headache, muscle pain and nausea

03:41are only stopped by a new shot.

03:47After the injection, he smokes heroin as well.

03:58Why is use so widespread?

04:00One reason, heroin is cheap.

04:03Over the last two decades, the price of an average dose

04:06dropped from around $35 to just $7, we're told,

04:10making the drug affordable.

04:12Many of the around 300,000 yearly tourists

04:15have no idea this is happening.

04:17But slowly, things are starting to change.

04:22If you were in the outskirts of Victoria,

04:24you could see one or two people

04:26who were clearly under the influence of drugs.

04:29You can tell drug use is an issue here.

04:32In the evening, people often ask you if you want to buy something.

04:36Should the drug problem become even more noticeable for tourists,

04:40it would be even more devastating for the local population.

04:43The tourist industry is one of the country's main sources of income.

04:47Almost half of its GDP relies on tourism.

04:54But there are those committed to fighting back.

04:57Behind these gates lies the base of the Seychelles Coast Guard.

05:02Major Hans Radugond has agreed to meet us.

05:05He tells us why it's so difficult to stop drugs from entering the country.

05:13The entry point are many.

05:15Our forces are small, but we do work a lot

05:19to provide certain security to the people.

05:23A big challenge of his team,

05:25patrolling the borders of a country

05:28A big challenge of his team,

05:30patrolling the borders of a country

05:32which includes 115 islands.

05:45Let's look at this in detail.

05:47Why has this tiny nation become a drug trade hotspot?

05:51The many islands that comprise the Seychelles

05:54lie dispersed in the Indian Ocean.

05:56And they are situated along one of the world's

05:59most well-known drug trafficking routes.

06:01But how exactly?

06:03The answer lies in a critical link

06:05between major opium-producing regions and global markets.

06:09The Golden Crescent, spanning parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan

06:13is one of the world's largest heroin-producing areas.

06:16Shipping routes traverse the Indian Ocean

06:19with the Seychelles acting as a transshipment point.

06:22They then go further to East Africa,

06:24some ultimately reaching the lucrative markets of Europe.

06:29The Seychelles does not have drug trafficking under control

06:32and very few islands in fact do.

06:34They often need to rely on external assistance

06:37to make significant improvements.

06:46We meet up with Boubou again.

06:48He seems to be deeply connected with the country's drug trafficking scene,

06:52which is why he didn't want to give us his identity.

06:55Boubou tells us he's been dealing with drugs in the Seychelles for years.

06:59I'm affecting a lot of families.

07:01I know that.

07:02But it's like that.

07:05Life.

07:07I survive.

07:09I don't have too much education.

07:14What can I do?

07:16And he makes another claim.

07:17For every trafficker caught, many go unnoticed.

07:20And he suspects that even those drugs that are intercepted

07:24are not necessarily off the Seychelles drug market.

07:27There's a lot of drugs with the state.

07:30What do you think they will do with it?

07:32They will burn it?

07:33Long time they don't burn.

07:36When you think it's burned, they burn powder.

07:39A lot of corruption.

07:41Now there are drugs that are selling now.

07:47It's the stuff on the boat that gets caught.

07:52While we can't verify his accusations,

07:54we've heard similar allegations of corruption within law enforcement multiple times here.

08:01Corruption is a very large problem in the Seychelles.

08:03It's not just the cops, it's also the judicial system

08:06that is a vulnerable element to corruption and to criminal infiltration.

08:13We asked the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the police commissioner

08:17to comment on the allegations of corruption in their ranks.

08:20But don't receive any response.

08:25Someone who helps those affected by the epidemic is Kenneth, a social worker.

08:30Today he's helping at a needle exchange program, financed by the government.

08:35Users who inject heroin come here for fresh needles.

08:39Using old or shared ones could mean transmitting hepatitis or HIV.

08:44People can die very quickly from either disease and heroin itself.

08:49I have two very close cousins that have passed from substance abuse.

08:56So this really gives me the motivation.

09:03He takes us straight to where heroin is used most, in the capital Victoria's ghettos.

09:09We have to film discreetly because the atmosphere is tense.

09:13We will go up there.

09:15When someone is using substances, it's not only him that is being affected,

09:22it's their family and also the society.

09:28He drives from one ghetto to the next.

09:31Many addicts don't make it to the social centre, so Kenneth needs to go see them.

09:36He knows slipping into addiction is particularly easy here,

09:40because the drug is everywhere.

09:42One person Kenneth was able to help is 23-year-old Romeo.

09:47Romeo doesn't use heroin anymore, but methadone, distributed by another bus.

09:53It's been about eight months right now I haven't smoked heroin.

09:57It's really helpful for me.

09:59The government finances the program, but critics say providing methadone is not enough.

10:04They want a more holistic approach.

10:07The people on substances, they don't just need the methadone,

10:11they also need the psychological support.

10:14So I think there should be more people trained in the field of addiction.

10:20We confront government officials with this.

10:22Marie-Josette is the director-general of the Health Ministry's division for substance abuse.

10:28If you're asking me, how much I need to take a drug,

10:33substance abuse.

10:34If you're asking me if our resources are enough to cater for the service, I would say

10:45no. Our biggest challenge is human capacity, the trained personnel to work with those people.

10:53It's not only of trained, being trained or specialised, lack of them.

10:59Does not having a single residential rehab centre for the estimated 5,000 to 6,000 addicts

11:04have consequences?

11:05Yes, of course, it has an impact. If we could at least have some people get into the rehabilitation

11:17and then get out clean and able to go out in the society, that would be very much helping.

11:27We have a holistic hospital which is in the plan. Hopefully it will start next year.

11:37We found out the drug crisis in the Seychelles is driven by many factors. A lack of facilities

11:42and funds, corruption and proximity to lucrative international trafficking routes. An end is

11:49nowhere in sight, but Kennet will continue to support the addicts.

11:55I hope for my island to be one day a drug-free island.

12:01Gigi's wish?

12:02I wish I can stop with the heroin. I'm back to the girl I used to be. For me to make my

12:10children grow in a better life. A better life for everybody in Seychelles.

12:25For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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