Mayotte: Gabriel Attal calls for “acceleration” of the dismantling of the Cavani camp

Europe 1 with AFP 3:38 p.m., February 7, 2024

"At this stage, 200 people have been evacuated (from the Cavani camp, editor's note). There are 500 left. I am asking for an acceleration of the evacuation operations from the Cavani stadium camp," the Prime Minister told the National Assembly. minister, who responded to the leader of the Les Républicains deputies Olivier Marleix.

“I say it very clearly and very firmly, I say it again: the dismantling of this camp is underway and will be completed,” added Gabriel Attal. Started on January 25 at the request of Gabriel Attal, the evacuation of this camp of several hundred African asylum seekers crystallized tensions between residents and refugees in Mayotte, paralyzed by blockages for more than two weeks.

Exiles mainly from Great Lakes Africa

Members of a citizen collective and residents are blocking the island's main roads to protest against insecurity and immigration in this Indian Ocean territory, the poorest department in France.

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If immigration to Mayotte comes mainly from the neighboring Comoros, the exiles settled in Cavani mainly come from Great Lakes Africa. They have been installed for months at the Cavani stadium, a district of the town of Mamoudzou, and in the surrounding streets, in huts made of wooden planks and covered with tarpaulins.

Tuesday during a press point, the head of the LR deputies Olivier Marleix had called for a "change of record" from the government in its action in Mayotte, calling on the National Navy to "cut a certain number of maritime routes" to "dry up the flow " of migrants. His colleague Pierre-Henri Dumont, for his part, had requested "radar" means to "detect the arrival of kwassa-kwassa (makeshift boats) from the Comoros further upstream".