2024-02-01 21:36:21
The Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin, during a visit to Mamoudzou, Mayotte, June 24, 2023. CHAFION MADI / AFP
The Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin, was due to go to Mayotte this weekend but the farmers’ crisis in France, he said, pushed him to postpone his trip. Yet another deep crisis is shaking the Indian Ocean department where citizen blockades have been rising for ten days against insecurity and the presence of migrants from Africa.
“The authority of the State will be measured not simply in the number of additional police officers and gendarmes, but in the change in law, undoubtedly very profound, which is necessary to prevent the arrival of these people in Mayotte”assured Mr. Darmanin, Thursday February 1, during a conference on overseas territories organized by Point in Paris.
Facing the right, and under pressure from Mahorais elected officials, the minister continues to raise the subject of irregular immigration. At Mamoudzou hospital, he stressed, “90% of births are not Mahorais births”. Before mentioning “women who almost give birth in the kwassa”the kwassa-kwassa, these fishing boats by which nationals of the neighboring Comorian islands travel irregularly to the French archipelago.
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“Internal border”
The minister also described the existence of a “internal border” in Mayotte. Because on the island, foreigners, even holders of a residence permit, do not have the right to travel to France, unless they obtain a visa. “We tried to cut off the flows. (…) It’s practical for the rest of the Republic but it raises very important questions in Mayotte, which considers itself a dead end.”he conceded.
“An upcoming constitutional change” is therefore envisaged, included in the calendar for 2024. “We will have to change, in the Constitution, the rules of land law and access to nationality if we want to radically change things in Mayotte », assured Mr. Darmanin. The minister leaves “the first” some announcements “to the President of the Republic”. Emmanuel Macron could go to Mayotte “in the coming months”.
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A “Mayotte” law promised in 2021 then abandoned, must also be put back into action in 2024 to deal with development and infrastructure issues on the island. “Mayotte” law or constitutional revision, we have no idea what the executive wants and I observe that it does not have a majority in Parliamenthowever, indicates Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories (LIOT) MP Estelle Youssouffa. Mahorese elected officials are still waiting for the President of the Republic to organize the meeting on Mayotte that they requested in October. »
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