On December 14, Mayotte was hit by one of the biggest cyclones the archipelago has ever experienced. If the provisional toll currently stands at 21 dead, the French authorities expect a much heavier human toll, which risks rising to a thousand victims. And for good reason, hundreds of thousands of people in an irregular situation have remained in the slums for fear of being controlled by the authorities.
The senator (RDPI) of Mayotte, Saïd Omar Oili, went to his constituency of Mamoudzou (Mayotte) yesterday, Monday December 16, to express his support to his population and see his family. The politician, who grew up in Mamoudzou, says he is deeply traumatized by this event. For “Marianne” he returns to the particular situation of the inhabitants of the slums of Mayotte.
Marianne : You arrived in Mayotte yesterday. How do you describe the situation in the slums after the cyclone?
Said Omar Oili: When I arrived, I didn’t recognize my town. I grew up here and yet there are streets that I don’t recognize, neighborhoods that no longer exist. It’s a shock, it’s a terrible shock. It feels like a bomb has fallen and leveled everything. Everything is black, it looks like the trees have burned. There is no water, no electricity, no food. People have to fend for themselves. People are very resilient, there is real solidarity. Fortunately, the children are currently on vacation but when it ends, what will we do with these people who are sheltered in schools?
Are the reinforcements sent to the archipelago sufficient to stem the crisis?
The project is gigantic, there is a huge shortage of doctors, everything is insufficient. The Minister of the Interior [Bruno Retailleau] assured me that a field hospital would be deployed to relieve the hospitals. The State has sent soldiers and civil security personnel, but I think we can triple the personnel we have sent here. When there was Irma [ouragan qui avait frappé les Antilles françaises en 2017]we had sent 3,000 men for 60,000 inhabitants to Saint-Martin. Here, it’s been Irma twice and we have sent between 110 and 140 men so far, for 400,000 inhabitants in Mayotte.
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How can we explain that a third of the archipelago’s inhabitants still lived in slums?
The problem that arises is that the people we were supposed to house do not have papers. Even if their situation allowed them to live in these homes, they will crowd into their slums. Permanent housing has lost its roof, but the difficulty lies mainly in the slums where more than half of the population lives. The problem is illegal immigration, which is quite significant. When it arrives, it settles where there is a little space, that is to say on land which belongs to the Departmental Council and the State. It is there that there are the largest slums. It is therefore the most vulnerable who are in the most dangerous places. There have been no deaths among people who have permanent houses. On the other hand, those who were in the slums were swept away with everything else.
How can constructions be adapted to the risky terrain of Mayotte? What form should the new building take?
There has been an evolution in housing in Mayotte. Now we build high, which was not accepted in the culture before. The population had its own habits, its own house and its own courtyard. Now the individual box is over, because we have an increasingly large demographic. The younger population accepts more easily living in high-rise houses. What we need now is to build a lot, because the demand is there. But the problem that arises in Mayotte is freeing up building land. It’s a real concern.
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What is also needed is for each region to be able to legislate by ordinance so that policies can be easier to apply in each region of the archipelago. Some refuse this solution, saying that it would amount to making Mayotte an exception. But Mayotte is already an exceptional department, for its youth, for its poverty. Can we develop the same standards as in mainland France? I don’t think so.
Many people in an irregular situation have not sought shelter in accommodation centers for fear of being checked by the authorities. What does this say about the migration issue in Mayotte?
People thought that the cyclone warnings were a trap, because there was trauma compared to what happened before. People have memories. Wuambushu [opération policière française qui a pour but d’expulser les étrangers en situation irrégulière, détruire les bidonvilles et lutter contre la criminalité dans l’archipel]it was a trauma because we had never seen that. They came and destroyed the slums.
READ ALSO: Illegal immigration: one year after “Wuambushu”, the government launches “Mayotte place net”
I’ll give you another example. There is a bus that runs in Mayotte to treat people with AIDS, the number of which is increasing worryingly, but the individuals do not come because the police often take advantage of these moments to round them up. So, they thought the cyclone warnings were a trap. When children leave school, parents do not come to pick them up because they are afraid of being checked and sent back to their country of origin. We absolutely must manage to reverse the trend and give people confidence. Because it might happen again.
Is there an awareness problem for this type of event?
The population does not have the memory of risk because it is very young. And in schools, there is no awareness on the behavior to adopt in the event of a cyclone alert even though we are in a very vulnerable area. We have a classroom problem which has forced us to introduce a rotation system where children only go to school two days a week. It is extremely complicated for teachers to integrate training on this under these conditions.
How was the decision of the new Prime Minister, François Bayrou, to go to Pau rather than to the crisis meeting in Mayotte, perceived by the people of Mahor?
It was very badly felt. The Mahorais saw that once again, Mayotte was not considered a priority. I have to reassure them, to tell them that the State is there and will help us, but they obviously told me that the new Prime Minister missed an opportunity to take up the first important issue that presented itself. to him.
What will happen in the coming days?
It’s in Paris that it’s happening. I am trying to raise awareness on all sides and ensure that we quickly find ways to rebuild this territory. I have already raised awareness with the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, who will present the Mayotte file today to the Conference of Group Presidents to see how the Senate can be useful in helping on this subject. From today, I want to raise awareness among MEPs. The Mayotte issue will be put on the agenda of tomorrow’s European Assembly.
