“On this New Year’s Day, it is important to say that Mayotte is not just about security and immigration, it is an absolutely magnificent island, which undoubtedly has economic and tourist potential no other like it”advance Gérald Darmanin, Sunday 1is January, in Kani-Kéli, in the far south of Grande-Terre. A few meters from the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, a floating pontoon flies towards the lagoon. It should allow local fishermen to land their cargo more easily. Above all, it must offer border police patrollers a new projection point while migrant smugglers, mainly from neighboring Comoros, regularly land in the area.
A narrow strip of metal and plastic, then, swaying with the footsteps of officials and the press, a pontoon that stops where the sea is deeper. Allegory of two days in Mayotte land during which Minister Darmanin tried to assert himself as the man of the overseas territories while the island has been living to the rhythm of violence for several months. A balancing act, both the costume of “first cop of France” sticks to his skin.
Gérald Darmanin thus climbs aboard a border police interceptor to test the effectiveness of a new generation drone, capable of recovering in the water and spotting boats five kilometers away. The new boats have arrived. Radars are being installed, specialized investigation groups are created to fight against clandestine networks. The account is there on the announcements made in August during the visit of the Minister of the Interior, then accompanied by Jean-François Carenco, Minister Delegate for Overseas.
“Fear has changed sides”
But Mr. Darmanin intends to go further and propose “an extremely important paradigm shift” on the migration issue in Mayotte. In the Minister’s mind, it will be legislative, which is why the next “asylum and immigration” bill does not contain specific provisions for the territory. It will then be up to Emmanuel Macron to decide ” in a few weeks “ on the subject, in particular with regard to a possible and new derogation from the ” birthright “. Regarding the slum destruction policy, the minister promises “spectacular actions” to come, while the lack of housing solutions prevents the prefecture from remaining in the nails vis-à-vis the law.
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