MPs warn of impending social chaos in French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte

54 French parliamentarians are calling for immediate action to address severe poverty and illegal immigration on Mayotte, ten years after it officially became the 101st department of France.

Mayotte is a group of islands that geographically forms part of the Comoro archipelago, which was colonized by France in 1912 and then declared French autonomous overseas territory in 1946.

But while Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli voted for independence from France in 1974, the islands of Mayotte rejected independence and then did so again in a second referendum two years later.

However, the Comoro islands continue to claim Mayotte and the UN does not officially recognize French sovereignty.

On 31 March 2011, backed by 95.24 of the population in yet another referendum, Mayotte became a fully-fledged French department, with the same rights for its citizens as a Parisian or someone from Bordeaux.

But ten years on from that date, an open letter from the 54 MPs highlights Mayotte's continued poverty.

Illiteracy, lack of running water
The MPs note a high level of illiteracy, and the fact that nearly one in three homes on the small group of islands has no running water. Social security benefits are still not in line with those elsewhere in France and 35 per cent of the eligible working population is unemployed.

Mayotte has suffered from a “historical lack of development” but MPs are clear that progress towards a better standard of living is also “impeded” by the problem of “mass illegal immigration.” According to 2017 census figures, 48 per cent of the population of Mayotte is foreign and 95 per cent of the foreigners are from the Comoros, where healthcare provision is much worse than in Mayotte.

Violence involving armed gangs is also a major issue. The parliamentarians, from across the political spectrum, welcome recent improved funding for operations to combat illegal immigration and local gang violence but they warn that the situation is explosive.

Catch-up programme
Mayotte, they conclude, needs a ten year catch up programme to upgrade its infrastructure and improve social equality by 2030. The government launched a 1.8 billion euro programme in 2019 to try to improve schools, roads and water provision but there is still much work to be done.

Mayotte Senator Thani Mohamed Soilihi, of President Macron's LREM party, in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper on Tuesday to mark the tenth anniversary of Mayotte's change in administrative status, agreed that progress must be accelerated.

He noted that the minimum wage elsewhere in France was twice as high as in Mayotte but declared “the number one problem in Mayotte is illegal immigration.” In 2018 protests against crime and illegal immigration brought Mayotte to a standstill, paralysing its economy.

Against this background, voters in Mayotte gave Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Rally (Rassemblement National) party her best result compared to any other French department, in elections to the European Parliament in 2019. Although 71.3 per cent of the population of Mayotte chose not to vote at all, of those who did, the RN won 46.1 % of ballots cast.

Plans for better transport
Sebastian Lecornu, the minister for overseas departments and territories, insisted on Wednesday in an interview with France Mayotte Matin newspaper, that the government was actively addressing the problems of crime and illegal immigration, while saying he wanted a “push on development” over the next ten years.  

The government has plans to lengthen the runway at Mayotte's Dzaoudzi international airport, and intends to develop the port of Longoni.

Like other French overseas departments, access to Mayotte has been drastically restricted at times during the Covid pandemic.