REPORTAGE
The President of the Republic arrived Tuesday in Mayotte as part of a trip with symbolic and political significance very strong. Mayotte is the first leg of a tour of the Indian Ocean. Emmanuel Macron immediately showed his attachment to the island: "There is no fatality, no France is security France is health France is school and France, these are the chances given to Mayotte to succeed. "
"Mayotte is French and will remain forever," he said in Shimaoré, highlighting the "exceptional" position of the archipelago in the Mozambique Channel, "in a region that has growth, where there is full of promises ".
Protecting borders and intercepting kwassa kwassa
This trip is the cornerstone of Act II of the Five-Year Plan. In particular, the French president has shown great firmness on the issue of immigration. Emmanuel Macron climbed on Tuesday morning aboard a patrol of French boats that control the territorial waters of Mayotte. The French island is subject to strong immigration from the Comoros, only 70 kilometers away.
The boat on which the president sits is an interceptor, a zodiac of more than 10 meters long. He reviewed the whole device. In all, the fleet consists of a dozen boats, accompanied by a helicopter. All these vehicles must be able to protect the borders and to intercept the kwassa kwassa, these makeshift boats coming from Comoros.
"We have not supported Mayotte at the right level for 40 years"
Several hundred of these kwassa kwassa are intercepted each year. In Mayotte, the situation is tense: 25% of the population of the island is undocumented and 75% of the inhabitants have little or no command of French. Faced with this situation, the French government raises the tone and has a goal: to reunite 25,000 illegal immigrants a year. The goal is almost reached this year but the Minister of Overseas, Annick Girardin, confided again recently: "We has not accompanied Mayotte at the right level for 40 years ".