Visiting the Transportation Camp in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni – French Guiana

Backpacking the infamous Transportation Camp (Camp de la Transportation) in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana.

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is located on the Maroni River, in the western part of French Guiana, opposite the town of Albina in Suriname.

I previously blogged about how I travelled from Paramaribo to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.

I had taken a bus from Paramaribo to Albina and then a pirogue across the Maroni River which separates Suriname from French Guiana.

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is where you will find the Transportation Camp.

The novel Papillon, written by Henri Charrière, perhaps the most well-known prisoner of the penal colony in French Guiana, is what brought me here.

Just as my visit to Siena in Italy was inspired by the James Bond Movie featuring Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace, my visit to French Guiana and in particular, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni was inspired by Papillon.

I had seen the film many moons ago, with Steve McQueen starring as Papillon and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega.

I definitely need to watch it again, but the book is a always, much better than the film.

A very quick history of the French Guiana Penal Colony

Following the signing of the Treaty of Breda in 1667, the Dutch were forced out, and then the sovereignty alternated between the French, British, Portuguese and Dutch until 1817, when it was finally signed over to the French.

France abolished slavery in 1848 and, with little use for territory, began using it as a penal colony in 1852.

The penal colony was designed as a brutal system of exile and forced labour; it sent roughly 70,000 convicts—political prisoners, hardened criminals, and petty offenders—to South America.

There were three offshore islands, collectively known as the Îles du Salut (Salvation Islands:

1. Île du Diable
2. Île Royale
3. Île Saint-Joseph

Each served a specific purpose:

Devils Island (Île du Diable): The most infamous of the group, primarily used to isolate political prisoners.

Royal Island (Île Royale): The administrative centre of the penal colony, featuring the main housing and facilities for the guards.

Saint Joseph Island (Île Saint-Joseph): Used primarily for solitary confinement. Inmates were locked in silent, dark, and stagnant cells for weeks or months for minor infractions.

The islands were chosen for their location. Escape was pretty much impossible. The treacherous seas and shark-infested waters.

In the beginning, only black and arab prisoners from other French colonies were sent here. But after a time, whites were also sent here basically to rot in hell. Diseases and sicknesses from Malaria, Cholera and Yellow Fever were high.

The endless heat, humidity, malnutrition, slave labour and disease, the death rate was extraordinarily high, as much as 50% at times.

Famous Prisoners

Perhaps the camps three most famous prisoners were:

1. Alfred Dreyfus
2. Henri Charrière
3. René Belbenoît

Alfred Dreyfus: A Jewish French army officer falsely accused of treason. His wrongful conviction and subsequent imprisonment on Devil’s Island sparked the Dreyfus Affair.

Henri Charrière: I have already mentioned Henri Charrière, nicknamed Papillon because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Papillon, which is now regarded as a very fictitious account of his life as a prisoner here.

Papillon was definitely a prisoner at the Transportation Camp, but whether he actually went to Devil’s Island is another matter.

René Belbenoît: Another inmate who escaped from Devil’s Island. His 1938 publication, Dry Guillotine, exposed the horrific realities of the French penal system to the international public.

The Transportation Camp

Initially, all prisoners were sent directly to the islands, but with an ever-increasing number of prisoners being sent to French Guiana, the Transportation Camp was established in 1854.

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni was chosen as the location for the camp.

Here you can see the remaining parts of the dock where the prisoners arrived on the boats coming from Europe.

Not so far away was the train station that was used to transport supplies to the camp.

Prisoners were processed at the Transportation Camp before being sent to the islands and other sites on the mainland.

Many ended up being here a long time.

France stopped transporting prisoners to French Guiana in 1938, but it wasn’t until 1953 that the camps on the islands and in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni were finally closed down.

Visiting the Transportation Camp

I stayed two nights in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and devoted one entire day to visiting the Transportation Camp.

Some of the details regarding my visit were a little unclear, as everything was in French, and well, yes, I can speak quite well, but understanding it is another matter. So I just went with the flow.

I went to the camp, but it turned out that it was a National Holiday, Ascension Day (Jour de l’Ascension), and of course, nothing much happens on a national holiday in France, so the Transportation Camp museum was closed and the staff at the tourist office had no idea about that, but I could join a tour, and one had just started.

Also, the opening times of the Transportation Camp and of the tourist office were a little confusing for me.

The tour was conducted in French, but there was no effort by the guide, who did speak some English, to offer even a brief translation, not even of the key points.

Anyway, these are my photos that I can share with you from my visit to the Transportation Camp in May 2026:

“Papillon” etched onto the floor of Cell 47 inside the Transportation Camp in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni:

There are lots of debate as to whether Papillon did this himself or was it the work of other inmates.

Maybe it was done when he supposedly revisted, years later, the place where spent so much time, imprisoned.