Three weeks after the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido, Mayotte is trying to heal its wounds. To sustainably rebuild the archipelago, it appears “necessary” to “fight effectively against illegal immigration”, judge Bruno Retailleau, Manuel Valls and Sébastien Lecornu. In a column published this Sunday in Le Figaro, the Ministers of the Interior, Overseas and the Armed Forces warn against “migratory disorders” which have, according to them, “made everything worse” in Mayotte.
“For too long, our Mahorese compatriots have been experiencing the disastrous consequences of migratory chaos on a daily basis, whether security, health or social,” they observe. “This uncontrolled immigration also represents very strong pressure on everyday public services (school, hospital or access to water).” Before adding: “in 20 years, the population has multiplied by five and a quarter are in an irregular situation. Moreover, today, one in two inhabitants is not French.”
Since December 22, “emergency means” have made it possible to arrest “170 illegal aliens and place 106 in detention,” they report, also mentioning “130 removals carried out.” “The truth is that without migratory firmness, we will rebuild Mayotte on sand: nothing will be resolved and everything will start again. Our Mahorese compatriots tell us this, and we must hear them. It is too easy, 8,000 kilometers away, to wash our hands of the effects of massive immigration that we are not experiencing.”
Beyond the emergency, the ministers also call for “addressing the causes of the migratory disorder in the archipelago”. They cite various measures pell-mell: “extending the period of legal residence of parents on the access of children to French nationality”, “fighting against fraudulent recognition of paternity” or even “extending assistance for the voluntary return of nationals Africans in their country of origin.
Measures that the government will present to Parliament “as part of a second bill for Mayotte”, they indicate. With one objective in mind: “to increase the removal of illegal immigrants, from 25,000 today to 35,000 tomorrow”.
