Mayotte: Comoros limits reception to passengers with papers

2023-04-27 14:49:17

They will finally be able to disembark. Comorian port authorities announced on Thursday (April 27th) that boats from the neighboring French department of Mayotte are again allowed to dock, after a suspension of a few days, and Comorians allowed to disembark provided they hold a document of identify.

The French authorities have deployed for several days significant logistical and human resources to dislodge illegal migrants from the slums of Mayotte as part of a controversial operation called “Wuambushu” (“recovery” in Mayotte). Some 1,800 police and gendarmes are mobilized, including hundreds of reinforcements from mainland France.

VIDEO. Anti-migrant operation in Mayotte: CRS and RAID police intervene in the slums

Comorians in an irregular situation, the vast majority of undocumented migrants present in the French archipelago, must be sent back to the nearest Comorian island, Anjouan, located only 70 km away. But a standoff has been under way since Monday between the French and Comorian authorities, Moroni having refused the docking of a boat from Mayotte, carrying 60 migrants, and suspended passenger traffic in the port of Mutsamudu, where deportees are usually disembarked.

Calls to cancel Operation “Wuambushu”

The country’s ports are now “able to accommodate passengers from Comoros and other nationalities”, said Mohamed Salim Dahalani, director of the port authorities, during a press conference at the northwestern port of Anjouan on Thursday. . But “will only disembark tomorrow passengers who will have their national identity card”, he stressed. Many migrants get rid of their papers once they arrive on foreign soil, in order to avoid being sent back to their country of origin or to try to pass themselves off as minors.

In recent weeks, Moroni has multiplied calls for Paris to cancel the “Wuambushu” operation set up by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Comorian President Azali Assoumani, who has held the presidency of the African Union since February, said he hoped “that the operation will be canceled”, acknowledging “not having the means to stop (it) by force”.

The Comoros have also committed in an agreement signed in 2019 to “cooperate” with Paris on immigration issues in exchange for development aid of 150 million euros. Many African migrants, and especially Comorians, regularly perish in shipwrecks while trying to reach Mayotte illegally each year, in particular on board small motorized fishing boats called kwassa kwassa.