France: the department of Mayotte plagued by illegal immigration
French far-right Rassemblement national (RN) candidate for the 2022 French presidential election, Marine Le Pen, in Mzouazia, on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, on December 17, 2021. AFP - ALI AL-DAHER
Text by: Julien Chavanne Follow |
Julien Chavanne Follow
3 min
She chose to make it one of her campaign stops: Marine Le Pen is in Mayotte.
The candidate of the National Rally (RN) for the French presidential election knows well this island located between the East African coast and Madagascar.
Ten years after becoming a department, Mayotte still suffers from the massive influx of illegal migrants.
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From our special correspondent in Mamoudzou,
Mayotte is accumulating records and not on the right side of the podium.
The homicide rate there is the highest in the European Union. Thefts with violence, assault and battery have increased by more than 150% since 2008. The arrivals of illegals have not dropped either.
Before setting foot on Mahorais soil, migrants risk their lives on kwassas, small fishing boats. Most come from the Comoros archipelago, 70 kilometers from Mayotte. Last Saturday, five people died, their boat capsized. Jérôme Sardi is a volunteer lifeguard at the SNSM in Mayotte. With his colleagues, he was able to save three survivors: "
When we go on capsizes, even if we hope that everyone will be surviving, unfortunately we know very well that there will surely be victims because the poor, they navigate. hours and hours, they are exhausted when they arrive here.
"
The number of illegal crossings has jumped by more than 30% in a year and a half.
So much so that today, it is impossible to say how many people live on the island: officially, there are 290,000 inhabitants, a quarter of which are foreigners in an irregular situation.
Read also: The dangerous crossings in "kwassa-kwassas" from the Comoros to Mayotte
Slums and insecurity
Slums have sprung up like mushrooms on the hills around Mamoudzou, a town that houses the prefecture and the General Council.
Shelters made of sheet metal or even concrete in unsanitary conditions.
Children of migrants do not find a place in schools ... At the same time, acts of delinquency and burglaries have increased.
The police can no longer cope.
Part of the population therefore mobilized.
In Bouéni, in the south of the island, Stéphanie Mohammed is part of Codim, a group of citizens who act as border guards: “
We patrol, often in the evening, in the town of Bouéni.
We have informants all over the place.
They warn us a bit in advance when they see boats arriving.
And there, we put ourselves on the beaches to prevent them from disembarking.
"
Stéphanie Mohammed also patrols the streets of her city after dark and forbids her children to go out after school.
Here, locals talk about an unofficial curfew after 6 p.m.
Lack of arms
It is the direct consequence of insecurity.
Example at the Kahani dispensary, which suffers from a lack of personnel.
Thierry Lahalle is a general practitioner.
"
There are no more doctors who are settling in,
there are no more doctors with their families in metropolitan France, it has ended," he
laments.
From Monday, we only see emergencies.
We are forced to work in degraded mode.
“Installed in Mayotte for 11 years, he hesitates to stay.
Also to listen
:
Is France disconnected from its overseas territories?
The government's "Mayotte Plan" is long overdue
The government has gone very far.
Emmanuel Macron has hardened the conditions of the right of the soil, it is unique on the French territory.
The police will also receive 400 additional personnel.
But setting up takes time.
Too much for the angry population.
Marine Le Pen understood this well.
The RN candidate has been here since Thursday and misses no opportunity to accuse the Head of State of having abandoned Mayotte.
Its radical measures such as the expulsion of illegal immigrants and the end of naturalizations find a favorable echo.
His electoral scores in the last elections are proof of this.
Read also:
Presidential 2022, Marine Le Pen on conquered ground in Mayotte
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