François Bayrou went to Mayotte after Hurricane Chido to see the damage and detail the help that the government will provide to the island. In the reconstruction plan, the Prime Minister suggested the existence of a section on the ban, or even the destruction of slums. A measure already tested in Mayotte and elsewhere in France, and which has already turned into a false good idea.
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Mayotte needs to find running water, electricity in every home, housing for every resident, rapid reconstruction…. French Bayrou addressed all these subjects during his visit to the Indian Ocean island through the exhibition of the “Mayotte standing” plan. Among the promises of the new Prime Minister, that of prohibiting the reconstruction of shanty towns on the island, most of which were swept away by Cyclone Chido. And even that of “ obviously intervene » on informal settlements that have already been rebuilt.
However, rebuilding a home with the means at hand was obvious to many, even more so on an island where a third of the population had one of these makeshift homes as their home before the cyclone hit. In the Kavani district, Ali, father of five children, was already at work at the end of December, rebuilding what the natural disaster had taken from him. “ It doesn’t make us happy to live herehe slips between two hammer blows. But we have no other place to go. »
The Prime Minister remains aware that the reduction of slums cannot be done in a few days: “ You have to find reception centers, it can’t be done by snapping your fingers. » A lesson learned from operations Wambushu (700 homes destroyed in 2023) and Place Nette (650 homes destroyed in 2024) carried out on the island, after which, according to the Human Rights League, a majority of people in an irregular situation displaced people live in worse housing conditions than before the operations?
“If they chase us away, where will we go with our children? »
Even if rehousing is carried out expertly, is it a sufficient solution? Because setting up reception centers and even new affordable housing can turn into a false good idea. In slums such as those of Mayotteseveral generations of families pass one after the other, life settles there and everything that goes with it. “ We have been living for yearsexplains a mother from the Kavani district. If they chase us away, where will we go with our children? Some study here “.
Rehousing easily causes the breakup of families and social circles and weakens already very complex situations. At the time of Operation Wuambushu, in April 2023, RFI went to the M’Tsapéré slum, to the Village d’Eva association, which then gave French lessons to children there. At the time of the evacuation, the school benches were largely deserted. “ Their parents say they can’t let their children come here. If they get deported and their kids are here, they wouldn’t know what to do », explained a teacher. Worse still, relocations can lead to disruptions in care.
Also readMayotte: schooling of children from slums undermined by operation “Wuambushu”
During undertakings like Operation Wuambushu, Operation Place Net, or high-profile dismantlings like that of the “Calais Jungle” in 2016, the risk is to only deal with an “aesthetic” aspect of problems with deeper roots. . After the destruction of camps and housing in Calais, for example, five years later, nothing had changed, and even certain aspects of the daily life of people in migration situations had worsened.
Loan Torondel, humanitarian worker on site, spoke to the Infomigrants websiteexplaining that even more extreme precariousness had ultimately pushed those displaced to attempt crossings of the Channel to England more often and more dangerously: “ [Les traversées en bateaux] were very rare at the time of the jungle, there were mainly individual attempts. In 2018, the phenomenon appeared and then took on considerable proportions “, he explained. By analogy, preventing the reconstruction of a shantytown in Mayotte without a precise plan and means put in place could worsen the situation of the most precarious families on the island and people in migration situations.
Fighting slums is not the same as fighting poverty
In his article “Eliminating slums = eliminating poverty” or the perverse charms of false evidencepublished in the journal Political economySarah Bartoli, doctor in geography, who, among others, was part of the interministerial delegation to combat poverty, attempts to demonstrate that razing or reducing a slum has no effect on the poverty and fragility of a population. “ We can also question the postulate according to which urban poverty is more frequently found in slums. […]. From the point of view of consumption, the hypothesis of lower monthly expenditure per capita in slums must be rejected “, she writes. Particularly in cases where family situations have stabilized in makeshift housing over several generations.
If the scientific literature dealing with slums explores the avenue of empowerment and progressive security of makeshift housing as a solution, this remains difficult to envisage in the case of Mayotte. Because one of the challenges of reconstruction remains rapid and massive security to deal with the next possible natural disasters. Also, if the fight against illegal immigration becomes one of the tenets of the “Mayotte standing” plan, as François Bayrou suggested, then the evacuation of part of the inhabitants of the slums will become a challenge for success. since a good part of the inhabitants of the slums are Comorians in an irregular situation. And this, at the risk of taking precedence over questions of rehousing, support, or any other parameter.