Mayotte: serious concerns about an operation against illegal immigration and slums

Children in the Majicavo slum, between Koungo and Mamoudzou, February 19, 2023. AFP - MARION JOLY

Text by: Sylvie Koffi

3 min

In Mayotte, a French department in the Indian Ocean, concern is growing around a possible operation called "Wuambushu" which has a double objective: the fight against illegal immigration and unhealthy housing. The operation is scheduled to begin at the end of Ramadan and will continue until June.

Advertising

Read more

The operation, called "Wuambushu" ("recovery", in Mahorais) was revealed a few weeks ago by the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné. It is about dismantling slums in Mayotte. The objective is to put an end to the territory's extraordinary delinquency. The latest figures from INSEE for 2021 indicate a theft rate three times higher than in metropolitan France. Undocumented migrants would be the first to be targeted. These migrants are all or almost all from the Comoros, and take refuge in particular in this unhealthy habitat. Every year, nearly 25,000 people are arrested and deported to the neighbouring island.

An operation designed from Paris?

According to Le Canard enchaîné, this operation was thought and designed in Paris. But the government has never confirmed this. A source close to the case cited by Agence France-Presse, however, confirms the information and even adds that Emmanuel Macron would have given the green light during a defense council in February.

The Comorian authorities, for their part, have asked the France to "renounce" this operation. Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who had not yet spoken on the issue, stepped up to the plate. Such a project "goes against respect for human rights and risks undermining good relations" between the two countries, according to a statement from the Comorian presidency.

Concerns are rising on all sides, starting with Comorian civil society. Last week, in a press conference, she even spoke of an upcoming massacre. The idea is to prevent an operation that may go off the rails. The health workers of the archipelago also recalled, in a statement, "the dramatic consequences" of previous large-scale interventions in the fight against immigration.

Finally, the president of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights wrote to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, asking him to "renounce" this project. For him, it risks aggravating social tensions in the archipelago, especially because the rights of expelled foreigners are rarely respected during operations of this kind.

In Mayotte, the regional section of the Syndicat de la magistrature has also reacted and points to this hunt for undocumented migrants. He denounces an amalgam between immigration and delinquency. For him, the judicial institution will somehow find itself instrumentalized by the decisions of the Ministry of the Interior. Since February, a significant reinforcement of magistrates has been deployed to the Mamoudzou court. There is a severe shortage of staff.

Law enforcement reinforcements

This large-scale operation requires significant reinforcements from the security forces on the island. It will result in the deployment of 400 additional mobile gendarmes, a CRS company specializing in urban violence. This will double the number of staff on site.

In the ranks of the police, there is rather concern for the aftermath, when the reinforcements will be gone. It can also be noted that some Mahorais, exasperated by insecurity, have rallied to the projects of the Minister of the Interior. They promise to do the "dirty work," in their words, if illegal migrants are not deported.

►To listen also: Grand Reportage - Mayotte, an island adrift

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

• France
• Mayotte
• Comoros