He places himself at the front of the gendarmerie shuttle which flies over the gray waters, off the coast of Mayotte. Immaculate white shirt, hands resting on the steel wire, gaze focused on the horizon. Studied, the pose is advantageous; he takes his time. The Minister of the Interior and Overseas Gérald Darmanin, who arrived in Mayotte on Sunday August 21 for a three-day trip, has just been briefed by a senior military officer on operations to combat illegal immigration at sea.
According to the authorities, the coastal maritime surveillance launch deters migrants from embarking on the famous “kwassas-kwassas” – light motorized boats – to try to reach Mayotte from the neighboring archipelago of the Comoros, in the hope of accessing a better life, while benefiting from French public services, in particular health. Every year, many Comorian women come to give birth on this small island lost in the Indian Ocean between East Africa and Madagascar, where more than one in two inhabitants is a foreigner.
Accompanied by his Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories, Jean-François Carenco, Gérald Darmanin – who remained at Place Beauvau after Emmanuel Macron’s re-election, with a wider scope, including overseas territories – undertook this long visit to illustrate the determination of the State to fight against illegal immigration.
Populated by nearly 400,000 people, the island saw its population quadruple between 1985 and 2017 according to INSEE, under the combined effect of a high birth rate and immigration. “If we do nothing, there will be 700,000 inhabitants in Mayotte in 2050”he tells the Monde recalling that in the presidential election, the candidate of the National Rally Marine Le Pen had come out on top here, in the first round. According to him, 40% of the medical procedures performed concern undocumented migrants, as do the hundred or so classrooms built each year.
Reforming soli law in Mayotte
The 101e French department accumulates the difficulties, economic and social – great poverty, unemployment of the young people, problems of formation – or security, with a delinquency much higher than in the Hexagon. Two days before the arrival of the Minister of the Interior, violent clashes opposed young people to the police, which happens regularly. Just like the stoned school buses or the aggressions in the middle of the street. The gendarmes must now supervise the hikes.
Gérald Darmanin, who has multiplied on the summer fronts (fires, storms, urban rodeos), is continuing his offensive on immigration, which began in mid-July with the announcement of a bill aimed at lifting “all reservations” legislative measures preventing the expulsion of foreign offenders. The text, initially announced for the start of the school year, was postponed to the end of the year and replaced by a consultation and then by a debate in Parliament in October, as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wished.
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