Seated on the terrace of a café in the Old Port of Marseille, Fatima has a serious face. After tapping on her smartphone, she hands the device. A video posted on social networks appears on the screen. A video of rare violence that immortalizes the tensions caused by the Wuambushu security operation in Mayotte.
Launched in the name of the fight against crime, this operation plans to dislodge irregular migrants from the slums of the 101st French department, and to expel undocumented migrants, mostly Comorians, to Anjouan, the most close located 70 kilometers away. Some 1,800 police and gendarmes, including hundreds of metropolitan reinforcements, are exceptionally mobilized in Mayotte for this controversial operation to which the government has not officially given a launch or end date.
“Any mother who has children, when she sees this, it hurts”
“These are our compatriots, alarmed at his side another Marseillaise of Comorian origin, who are also called Fatima. To see them like that being dragged around like dogs is revolting. Any mother who has children, when she sees a child go through this, it hurts. These images made me tremble. Every time we see this brutality on social media, it surprises us. »
At the coffee table, their table neighbors nod. All of them are known here for their commitment to democracy in the Comoros despite the thousands of kilometers that separate the Old Port from their native islands. But from this corner of the terrace, on another continent, it’s a little piece of Comoros that comes to light, with a bruised heart, in a city known to be home to the largest diaspora in France.
“Suffering, we feel it ten times stronger here”
“It’s extremely shocking,” breathes Djamila. They are children who live there, who have lost their parents while crossing the seas. They are orphans who grew up on the street, who are fragile. It is a crime, what France is doing. Humanity, where is it? Who does that in a state of law? “I feel real suffering for them, abounds Fatima. Many come to Mayotte for treatment, because the structures there are better. In the Comoros, they have no school, no electricity, no road. Children do not want to die on the spot. Women come so they don’t die in childbirth. And Mayotte is our home. Myself, I went to Mayotte for a year to get treatment, before being repatriated to mainland France. It’s a nightmare. We have family all over there. It makes me suffer because our children are taken away from us. We are breaking up our families. »
“Those who live here, in Marseille, are those who make life there, adds Zilé. So all the suffering there, we feel it ten times stronger here because we receive phone calls every day. Beyond fear, it is fear that seizes these Comorians. “It will become a kind of civil war, worries Djamila. Those who are repatriated by the military will be against the system and will not let it go. “They are in the process to set fire to the islands, abounds Dini. Because the people who will be moved to the Comoros will not necessarily be accepted there. I fear that we are witnessing a general destabilization of the whole archipelago. »
A first demonstration against the Darmanin law and the Wuambushu operation is planned in Marseille this Saturday at 2 p.m. from the Porte d’Aix, before possible other mobilizations of the Comorian community. Because where they are, miles away from their native land, as Djamila notes, “our only way to fight is to talk. And try to show that what is happening in Mayotte is a disaster. A disaster not so far away, to listen to these Marseillais of Comorian origin. “If Gérald Darmanin does this, it is also to add them to the figures for deportation to the border”, accuses Dini. “And you have to be aware of something,” concludes Zilé. The overseas departments have always been laboratories for France. Darmanin is testing in Mayotte the harshest component of his immigration policy”.