Mayotte Island: Mayotte Island Anti-migration operation on French African island of Mayotte stirs tensions, exposes inequalities
France to revoke birthplace citizenship on Indian Ocean island of Mayotte
The port of Longoni in the French overseas territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean was shut down Monday by protesters expressing their dissatisfaction with the government.
Members of the “Forces vives de Mayotte” collective, who have complained about irregular migration and inadequate security measures on the island, closed the region’s main port to make their voices heard to the government, said media reports.
According to data from the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME), Longoni port meets 65% of the region’s food needs.
Protesters blocked shipments of goods from the port to the island, while port authorities reported an increase in the number of containers waiting on the dock because their goods cannot be unloaded.
Members of the collective have also set up barricades at various points on the island.
A spokesperson for the collective, Abdou Badirou, said about the closure of the port that the authorities would react if the economic heart of the island was threatened.
“For the past three weeks, we have been setting up barricades at intersections and public areas, but we have not yet received a response from the government,” he said.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin visited Mayotte on Sunday and announced that territorial-based citizenship would end in response to the migration problem on the island.
“French citizenship will not be granted to Mayotte residents unless they are children of French parents,” said Darmanin, claiming that this will help solve the migration problem on the island, which is particularly high due to migrant flows from neighboring Comoros Islands.
Mayotte has been in the spotlight due to water shortages and violent incidents.
It was reported that soldiers have been distributing drinking water in bottles for over four months due to the water shortage on the island.
The island witnessed violent incidents between gangs at the end of October last year. During the weeks-long incidents, the capital Mamoudzou was surrounded by barricades by gangs and access to the city from the outside was blocked.
The violence spread to different parts of the island.
Mayotte lawmakers have said that a security crisis is unfolding and have requested assistance from the French government.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin arrived on the island over the weekend and revealed that the proposed amendment would no longer grant citizenship to individuals born in Mayotte unless they are the children of a French parent. The Mayotte Journal reports that the new “lifting of the land laws” ends the right of citizenship based on birth in their district.
The African Institute for Security Studies said the diplomatic challenge is that:
‘On the one hand, French law relating to Mayotte is that if you are born in Mayotte to undocumented parents, you are not French. On the other, these kids are technically not Comorans because they were not born in the Comoros, and their parents didn’t register them in the Comoros. They become technically stateless. In Mayotte, they can’t attend school, receive public healthcare, or work. They resort to crime to survive. This is the human tragedy.’
Environmentalist MEP Marie Toussaint stated “Ending land rights in Mayotte will not resolve the territory’s difficulties, but it will damage our Republic.” Additionally, Le Figaro news reports that while the left denounce this plan as another attack on French values, hundreds of protesters in the capital of Mamoudzou welcome it. French political leaders on the right and the far right have even suggested applying this measure across the whole of France.
Mayotte Island Is an island off the Indian ocean of East Africa, Mayotte comprises two islands northwest of Madagascar and is part of an archipelago that includes the independent African Comoros islands. Migrants from Comoros islands flee to Mayotte, hoping to immigrate to Europe. Daramanin announced the new birthright law as a solution and said, “We will thereby cut off the attraction that the Mayotte archipelago might have.”
