France to tie African development aid to efforts to limit migration to Mayotte
France is demanding closer cooperation from the Comoros, the independent country that forms part of the same archipelago off the coast of southeast Africa as Mayotte, as well as mainland states Burundi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia and Kenya.
Official development assistance to these countries will become conditional on participation “in the fight against people smugglers” and on their “capacity to take back foreign nationals in an irregular situation”, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced late Wednesday, during a two-day visit to Mayotte.
He also said that France would step up its use of military resources to stop people reaching Mayotte unlawfully, including drones and balloons to monitor those approaching by sea, as well as additional interceptor vessels.
A significant proportion of Mayotte's 323,000 inhabitants are foreign nationals, according to figures from France's national statistics office Insee. Historically, most come from the neighbouring Comoros, although arrivals of asylum seekers from the Great Lakes region are increasing.
Lecornu said direct humanitarian aid would not be affected. Instead, development funds would be tied to performance on criteria including the issuing of temporary travel documents allowing migrants to return to their country of origin and the number of undocumented migrants returning home.
“It is only right” to give more aid “to a country that is making an effort to meet our expectations on migration”, the prime minister said.
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Political football
The proposal has come under criticism from both the left and the right in France, as the issue of illegal immigration to Mayotte once again becomes a political football ahead of next year's presidential election in France.
Thomas Portes, an MP from the hard-left France Unbowed party, accused Lecornu of adopting the tactics of the far right.
“Using development aid as a means of blackmail is completely unacceptable,” he said, calling instead for “a policy of welcome” for people fleeing conflict and disasters.
Meanwhile, politicians on the far right said Lecornu's proposal did not go far enough.
“It is no longer a question of making official development assistance conditional, but of abolishing it,” said Sarah Knafo, a member of the European Parliament for nationalist party Reconquête.
Presidential candidates have been ramping up anti-immigration proposals for Mayotte, where far-right leader Marine Le Pen of the National Rally won 59 percent of the vote in the second round of the 2022 presidential election. She is expected to remain the favourite next spring.
Former prime minister Édouard Philippe, a centrist who is also running for president next year, visited Mayotte last week and put forward a series of proposals aimed at “turning off the taps of immigration”, drawing criticism from the left.
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Reconstruction
The rhetoric comes as the archipelago struggles to rebuild after Cyclone Chido struck in December 2024, causing widespread destruction.
Reconstruction efforts after remain stalled, angering local politicians.
“Do we not have enough natural disasters? Do we also need political disasters? It's shameful,” said Mayotte MP Estelle Youssouffa of the LIOT group, a cross-party political bloc dedicated to overseas issues.
She accused the prime minister of engaging in “political PR”, pointing out that development aid to Comoros is already conditional on migration cooperation under France's 2019 agreements with the country, and calling for the national government to instead tackle the issue of informal migrant camps.