France’s crackdown on illegal immigrants comes unstuck

In the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, France is getting tough on illegal immigrants. Authorities launched Operation Wuambushu (Take Back) on Monday, with police sent into the shanty towns to remove those there illegally and demolish their settlements. Around half of Mayotte’s population are foreign, mostly illegal immigrants from Comoros, 45 miles to the north-west. But it wasn’t long before the crackdown came unstuck.

Mayotte is the same size in land mass as the Isle of Wight – 147 square miles – but whereas the latter has a population of 142,000, Mayotte’s is somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000. No one knows the precise figure because of the high rate of illegal immigration. The arrivals live in shanty towns, and crime and disease have risen as a result. 

France governed Mayotte and the three islands of the present-day Comoros – Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan – as ‘territories’ until 1974. That year Comoros voted in a referendum for independence but Mayotte opted to remain French.