France destroys more Mayotte slums, vowing to 'regain control' of population

On a visit to the French overseas department of Mayotte at the weekend, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin vowed to "regain control" of the archipelago’s demography as he announced the destruction of 275 slums since the beginning of the year.

Makeshift houses are destroyed in Koungou on the French Indian Ocean Island of Mayotte, on June 19, 2023. AFP - CHAFION MADI

Darmanin spent the weekend in Mayotte to take stock of the ongoing French military-police 'Wuambushu' operation to expel illegal immigrants, destroy slums and fight crime on the islands.

Wuambushu (meaning "recovery" in Mahorais) is an the name given to an operation to fight crime, irregular immigration and unsanitary housing that the central government began two months ago.

Darmanin, who is also France’s Overseas Minister, said the objective was to destroy a thousand slums by the end of 2023.

He told FranceInfo radio that last year 25,000 people were expelled from Mayotte – promising that this year France would "break the record for deportations".

Stopping the boats

Thanks to coordinated action with the neighbouring Comoros Islands, Darmanin said, there were three times fewer kwassa kwassa fishing boats arriving in Mayotte.

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Around half of Mayotte's roughly 350,000 population is estimated to be foreign, most of them Comoran.

Darmanin said Comorans with the right visas and papers were welcome to visit both Mayotte and mainland France – and called for improvements in the visa process – while adding: "Let's stop the hypocrisy of irregular immigration."

A part of Mayotte society was complicit in irregular immigration, Darmanin said, with the sale of false work and birth certificates – adding that police were working to arrest those responsible.

The French government's policy, although supported by some elected officials and many locals, has been criticised by human rights groups as "brutal", "anti-poor" and violating the rights of migrants, mostly from neighboring Comoros.

Wuambushu "does not solve any fundamental problem, on the contrary increases tensions between inhabitants of the island and aggravates the great poverty of people who are already very precarious", estimated the heads of seven NGOs and associations, including Doctors of the world, the Secours Catholique and the Abbé Pierre Foundation, who co-signed an opnion piece published on Saturday by Le Monde.

During his visit, Darmanin also promised to remedy the lack of drinking water affecting the archipelago and announced a cap on the price of bottled water from 15 July.