MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP
The Minister of the Interior, traveling to the island this Sunday, wishes to rely on a constitutional revision.
“We are going to take a radical decision, which is the registration of the end of land law in Mayotte in a constitutional revision that the President of the Republic will choose. Arriving on the island this Sunday, Gérald Darmanin made this expected announcement. “It will no longer be possible to become French if you are not yourself the child of French parents, we will reduce the attractiveness that there is in the Mahorais archipelago” declared the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories upon his arrival on the tarmac on Sunday morning.
The tenant of Place Beauvau indicated that he was responsible for this announcement by “the president of the Republic” Emmanuel Macron.
The Minister of the Interior is accompanied by the new Minister for Overseas Territories, Marie Guévenoux. They came to prepare Operation Wuambushu 2, against delinquency and illegal immigration.
End of territorialized visas
“It is an extremely strong, clear, radical measure, which obviously will be limited to the Mayotte archipelago”, specified Gérald Darmanin, who does not want to extend it to other French territories. This announcement is also synonymous with the end of territorialized visas since there are no “will have more opportunity to be French when you come to Mayotte on a regular or irregular basis”. “(Territorialized visas) no longer need to be”, assures the Minister of the Interior. These measures prevent holders of a Mayotte residence permit from coming to France. This removal is one of the demands of citizen collectives. A Mayotte bill will be studied in the National Assembly “in the coming weeks”.
This announcement does not come as a surprise. Thursday February 1, on the sidelines of an event dedicated to Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin said “than the right of soil and blood” was not “not the same Mayotte than in the rest of the national territory” and that a constitutional change could “give Mayotte a subject, in a secure manner, of extraterritoriality”.
Since the asylum and immigration law of 2018, land law has already been tightened in Mayotte to deal with the very high level of illegal immigration from neighboring Comoros. It is required for children born in Mayotte that one of their parents has, on the day of birth, been regularly present on the national territory for more than three months. Elsewhere in France, no residency period is required.
Roadblocks against insecurity and uncontrolled immigration
A few hours later, several hundred Mahorais waited in Mamoudzou for the arrival of the ministers, greeted by boos and shouts. “Angry Mayotte”. Their procession immediately went to the prefecture, while scuffles broke out between demonstrators who tried to follow them and the police.
“Now we are waiting for something concrete (…) We have no timetable. When will the territorialized visa end? When does the Mayotte law apply? If it happens immediately, we will remove the barriers but we don’t just want words”assured Zafira Ahmed, Force Ouvrière trade unionist and member of “Live forces”, to the AFP.
The French department in the Indian Ocean, already affected by an acute water crisis, has been paralyzed since January 22 by roadblocks installed by “citizen collectives” to protest against insecurity and uncontrolled immigration.
They demand the expulsion of refugees from Great Lakes Africa, installed in a makeshift camp around the Cavani stadium, in Mamoudzou, and demand an end to acts of delinquency and clashes.
Launched in spring 2023, the contested Wuambushu operation, intended to fight crime, illegal immigration and unsanitary housing in Mayotte, aimed in particular to dry up the flow of migrant arrivals from neighboring Comoros and to destroy bangas (huts). ) unsanitary organized in slums, more and more numerous.