France plans to withhold its nationality from those born on the Muslim island of Mayotte

A village on the French island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean (Shutterstock)

The French authorities announced their intention to make a controversial constitutional amendment that would abolish the right of those born on the French island of Mayotte, which has a Muslim majority in the Indian Ocean, to obtain citizenship, claiming that it would help stop the illegal immigration crisis.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced during his visit to the island yesterday, Sunday, February 11, 2024, that “we will take a radical decision. It will no longer be possible to become French if you are not the son of a French father,” according to what the French newspaper Le Monde reported.

“This measure would reduce the attractiveness of the archipelago for potential migrants,” Darmanin added. “It is a very strong, clear and radical measure, and it will obviously be limited to the Mayotte archipelago.”

Mayotte consists of two islands that voted to remain part of France in 1973, while the other islands in the surrounding Muslim-majority archipelago declared their independence to become the Republic of the Comoros.

The French Constitution allows citizenship to be granted to children born to a French father or mother, or to a child born on French territory under certain conditions, and this depends on the nationality of the parents or their place of birth, or even the period that the child spent in France before reaching the age of majority, which applies to all French territories with the exception of Mayotte, which is subject to more stringent rules.

For a child born in Mayotte to be recognized as French, his parents must be legally residing in France at the time of his birth, but the government recently announced that it intends to tighten these rules further in 2024.

While the left condemned the new plan as another attack on French values, political leaders from the right and far right quickly welcomed it and demanded its implementation throughout France.

Boris Vallaud, head of the Socialists in the National Assembly, told France 3 that they will oppose the revision of the constitution, stressing that “nationality acquired by birth is non-negotiable.”

Leftist Manon Aubry denounced the decision, saying that the administration of French President Emmanuel Macron "is attacking the very concept of nationality, which is the basis of the republic."

Meanwhile, French MP Sebastien Chennot, spokesman for the far-right National Rally party to which Marine Le Pen belongs, asked in a post on the “X” platform, “Why don’t all French people deserve what the Mahurs deserve? Land rights must be abolished throughout the national territory.”

How many French people are there?

It is necessary to install it on all national territoires!

— Eric Zemmour (@ZemmourEric) February 11, 2024

Chenu said in television statements, “I wasted a lot of time to come to the conclusion that abolishing the right to land, not only in Mayotte, but everywhere in France, is not only necessary, but can be achieved by holding a referendum and reviewing the constitution.”

François Bayrou, head of the centre-right French Union for Democracy party, said: “I proposed this decision as early as 2007, nearly 20 years ago.”

He added in television statements, "I have been convinced since then that it is not possible to escape from reality, as is evident on the island of Mayotte, represented by the continuous migration from the Comoros, which is causing dangerous and large waves of African migration."

In December 2023, the French Parliament approved a strict immigration draft law that was adopted under pressure from the right, and Parliament will begin discussing it next March.

On January 8, 2024, the Constitutional Council - the highest constitutional authority in France - rejected more than a third of the provisions contained in the controversial immigration law, especially provisions related to reducing social benefits and family unification, in addition to imposing a special immigration quota system determined by Parliament.

The court rejected 32 amendments out of 86 on the grounds that they were not related to the subject of the law. The Constitutional Council also denounced 3 other amendments partially or completely because of their spirit, and partially rejected Parliament’s setting of special quotas for immigrants.

Mayotte...the dream of those seeking French citizenship

France has extended its sovereignty over the territory of the island of Mayotte, which is located northwest of Madagascar, since 1841, when Paris bought the island, which was constantly subjected to pirate attacks, before it occupied the entire Comoros in 1912.

Later, Paris changed the name of the island, of which 97% of the population is Muslim, from the old Arabic name “Island of Death” to “Mayotte”, and it was called the Island of Death. Because it is protected by coral reefs that surround it and destroy ships coming to it.

In 1974, after the struggle against French colonialism, a popular referendum was held in which 95% of the population of the Comoros Islands voted in favor of the independence of their country, and it joined the League of Arab States on November 20, 1993.

As for the Mayotte referendum, 63.3% of the island’s population voted against the option of independence, and in a second referendum held by Paris on the island in 1976, the result was 99.4% approval to remain with France, and not to join the State of the Comoros.

In 1995, France imposed an entry visa to Mayotte on citizens of the Comoros, which led to the beginning of the phenomenon of irregular migration, through which residents of other islands try to cross the 70 kilometers that separate them from Mayotte in small fishing boats, especially pregnant women who are trying to reach Mayotte to give birth. Their children are there, where the newborns obtain French citizenship.

In 2009, 95.2% of voters on the island voted in favor of Mayotte becoming a full French department, which was officially announced in 2011.

Although nearly half of the island's population does not hold French citizenship, and the United Nations, the African Union, the League of Arab States, and the Comoros do not recognize France's right to the island, Mayotte gained membership in the European Union in January 2014, being the 101st French province. .

According to the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSA), the island, which has an area of ​​375 square kilometers, is home to about 310,000 people, more than 40% of whom live on less than 160 euros per month.

Residence permits issued to foreigners arriving in Mayotte are valid for the island only, and cannot be used to travel to mainland France, which sparks widespread protests within the island to demand the abolition of this system.

Mayotte has witnessed strong waves of migration for several years, most of them from the neighboring Comoros archipelago, where thousands fleeing poverty are searching for a better living situation.

This influx caused great tensions, as many complained about the spread of crime and poverty, and over the course of weeks the island witnessed protests against insecurity and the migration crisis, while 29% of its population lacks safe drinking water.

In May 2023, France sent dozens of excavators, trucks, and more than 600 police officers to Mayotte, to deport more than 10,000 “illegal immigrants” who did not have the necessary documents, and to destroy 1,000 slum dwellings, as part of Paris’s plan to confront irregular migration in its territory. .

Since 2018, France has begun deporting 25,000 Comorian citizens annually on average from Mayotte, and it has also granted the Comoros government about 150 million euros to combat “illegal” Comorian immigration, as it described it, between 2019-2022.

Source: Al Jazeera + French press + social networking sites