In Mayotte, Gérald Darmanin defends an initial assessment of the “Wuambushu” operation

2023-06-24 09:53:00
During an identity check and search operation for undocumented people in the Badamiers district, in Petite-Terre, Mayotte, on May 27, 2023. MORGAN FACHE / MORGAN FACHE

It is necessarily an image that jumps out at you. Of those who intend to reassure the population of Mayotte. At the ferry terminal on the island of Petite-Terre, around twenty gendarmes in fatigues and black T-shirts, armed, are deployed and systematically check all passengers boarding the barge to reach Grande-Terre. and Mamoudzou. Sitting on the wooden bench of the boat, for the crossing which lasts a quarter of an hour, Jean (he did not wish to give his name, like the people mentioned by their first name) recounts how he was checked three times while going to Labattoir, on Petite-Terre: “There were already checks before, but since Wuambushu it has really increased”. ” Fortunatelysays this young Congolese, who fled his region of North Kivu because of the war, I had my certificate. » His asylum application valid until November that he never forgets in his travels.

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For two months now, this French department in the Indian Ocean, marked by recurrent episodes of gang violence and social tension, has lived to the rhythm of the “Wuambushu” operation against crime, through the destruction of slums and the expulsion of illegal aliens, mainly Comorians. On the island, half of the population, estimated at around 400,000 inhabitants, is made up of foreigners.

Two months to the day after the start of the operation, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior and Overseas, is making a trip there on Saturday June 24 and Sunday June 25 to defend an initial assessment of the denounced operation. by several associations, including Cimade and Médecins du monde, such as “all safe”aggravating tensions between inhabitants, poverty and reducing access to rights.

Beginnings with the flu

” The results are in “welcomed Mr. Darmanin, Friday, June 23, in Le Figarospeaking of ” success “ with violence against people reduced by 22% and property crimes by 28%. “We have divided by three the incoming flows of illegal immigrants”adds the Minister, who intends to erase the flu-like beginnings of the operation despite the presence on the island of 1,800 gendarmes and police officers.

First failure, the government of the Union of the Comoros, faced with the hostility of a large part of its public opinion, initially refused to welcome the deportees by closing the port of Mutsamudu, in Anjouan, to the ferry Maria-Galanta, which transports them from Mayotte. After intense negotiations with the French government, Moroni agreed to receive candidates for the ” voluntary departure “. But the repressed speak well of forced departures.

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