In Mayotte, a French department in the Indian Ocean, concern is mounting around a possible operation called “Wuambushu” which has a dual objective: the fight against illegal immigration and unsanitary housing. The operation should begin at the end of Ramadan and will continue until June.
The operation, called “Wuambushu” (“recovery”, in Mahorais) was revealed a few weeks ago by the satirical weekly The chained Duck. It is about dismantling slums in Mayotte. The goal is to end extraordinary crime of the territory. The latest INSEE figures for 2021 indicate a theft rate three times higher than in mainland France. Undocumented migrants would be the first targets. These migrants are all or almost all from the Comoros, and take refuge in particular in this unsanitary housing. Every year, nearly 25,000 people are arrested and deported to the neighboring island.
An operation designed from Paris?
According to The chained Duck, this operation was conceived and designed in Paris. But the government never confirmed it. A source familiar with the matter cited by theAgence France-Presse however confirms the information and even adds that Emmanuel Macron would have given the green light during a defense council in February.
The Comorian authorities for their part asked France to “ give up on this operation. The President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani, who had not yet spoken on the issue, stepped up to the plate. Such a project goes against respect for human rights and risks undermining good relations between the two countries, according to a press release from the Comorian presidency.
Concerns are rising on all sides, starting with Comorian civil society. Last week, in a press conference, she even spoke of a massacre to come. The idea is to prevent an operation that could go wrong. The archipelago’s health personnel also recalled, in a press release, “ the dramatic consequences of previous large-scale interventions in the fight against immigration.
Finally, the president of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights wrote to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, asking him to “ to renouncer to this project. For him, it risks aggravating social tensions in the archipelago, in particular because the rights of expelled foreigners are rarely respected during operations of this kind.
In Mayotte, the regional section of the Syndicat de la magistrature also reacted and points to this hunt for undocumented migrants. He denounces an amalgam between immigration and delinquency. For him, the judicial institution will somehow find itself instrumentalized by the decisions of the Ministry of the Interior. Since February, a significant reinforcement of magistrates has been deployed to the Mamoudzou court. It is sorely understaffed.
Reinforcements of law enforcement
This large-scale operation requires significant reinforcements from the police forces on the island. It will result in particular in the deployment of 400 additional mobile gendarmes, a CRS company specializing in urban violence. This will double the number of staff there.
In the ranks of the police, we are rather worried about the aftermath, when the reinforcements will have left. It can also be noted that some of the Mahorais, exasperated by insecurity, rallied to the projects of the Minister of the Interior. They promise to do the dirty work in their words, if illegal migrants are not deported.
►Also listen: Grand Reportage – Mayotte, an island adrift