PARIS, France
A French court halted the
controversial clearance of a slum due Tuesday aimed at expelling migrants from
its Indian Ocean island territory of Mayotte -- a plan that has sparked clashes
between locals and security forces and sparked tensions with neighbouring
Comoros.French gendarmes check cars in Koungou city, on April 24, 2023.
The operation, called Operation
Wuambushu ("Take Back" in the local language), aims to expel migrants
from urban slums on Mayotte to
improve living conditions for locals in France's
poorest department.
Some 1,800 members of the
French security forces have been deployed for the operation, including hundreds
sent from Paris,
with young locals and police clashing in the district of Tsoundzou outside
the main town of Mamoudzou since Sunday.
AFP journalists reported clashes outside
slums in Mayotte's main city on Tuesday. Barricades of tyres and dustbins lined
the road and protesters threw stones at police, who fired tear gas.
A court in Mamoudzou on
Tuesday stopped the clearance of one slum located at Koungou near the capital
at the last minute, saying the action had no legal foundation and threatened
public liberties.The local administration said it would appeal. Locals
feted the court decision stopping the evacuation, which was due early Tuesday.
"I am overjoyed, we went
to court and we won," exulted Mdohoma Hadja, 33, raising her arms to the
skies. Comoros, whose three islands lie to the northwest of Mayotte, said
Monday it had refused to allow a boat carrying migrants from
the island. Most of the illegal migrants being deported are Comoran. It
also said it had suspended passenger traffic at a port where deported migrants
usually land.
The plan is for those without
papers to be sent back to the Comoran island of Anjouan, 70 kilometres (45
miles) away from Mayotte. "We will not stop the operations... to
fight against delinquency and unsanitary housing, with their consequences on
illegal immigration," the most senior Paris-appointed official on Mayotte,
Thierry Suquet, told reporters.
He said he hoped to
"quickly resume" boat deportations to
Anjouan and hoped the standoff would be resumed through
"dialogue". Intense negotiations between Comoros and
France in recent weeks had raised the possibility of a last-minute deal.
But Comoros' leader Azali
Assoumani -- who has held the rotating presidency of the African
Union since February -- said he hoped the operation would be
abandoned, admitting Moroni didn't have "the means to stop the operation
through force."
In 2019, France pledged 150
million euros ($161 million) in development aid as part of a deal to
tackle human trafficking and ease the repatriation of Comorans
from Mayotte. Around half of Mayotte's roughly 350,000 population is
estimated to be foreign, most of them Comoran.
Many African migrants,
especially Comorans, try to reach Mayotte illegally every year. These risky
crossings risk ending in tragedy when the "kwassa kwassa" -- the small motorised fishing boats used by people smugglers
-- are shipwrecked.
Mayotte is the fourth island
of the Comoros archipelago that France held on to after an initial 1974
referendum, but it is still claimed by Moroni. - AFP
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