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Comoros refused to allow a boat carrying migrants from Mayotte. French authorities have announced a controversial operation against illegal migrants in Mayotte. Comoros suspended passenger traffic at Mutsamudu port, where deported migrants usually land
Comoros refused to allow a boat carrying migrants from Mayotte. French authorities have announced a controversial operation against illegal migrants in Mayotte. Comoros suspended passenger traffic at Mutsamudu port, where deported migrants usually land.
Comoros authorities blamed France had taken the decision to deport the migrants unilaterally and said that none of the deported migrants would enter a Comoran port. Authorities in the French overseas territory of Mayotte announced they would launch Operation Wuambushu (“Take Back”) to remove illegal migrants who have settled in slums on the island. People who are living in Mayotte without valid papers are being sent back to the Comoran island of Anjouan, which is lying 70 kilometers away from Mayotte. As reported by www.trendsnafrica.com, Comoros had warned that it would not accept migrants expelled under the plan that has triggered a diplomatic spat. Intense negotiations between Moroni and Paris in recent weeks had raised the possibility of a last-minute deal.
Comoros’ leader Azali Assoumani, who holds the rotating presidency of the African Union since February, called for France to abandon the evacuation efforts since his country did not have the means to stop the operations.
Estimates put that around half of Mayotte’s roughly 350,000 population are of foreign origin, mostly of Cormoran. 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. Mayotte is the fourth island of the Comoros archipelago that France held on to after the initial 1974 referendum.
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In March 2011 Mayotte became the 101st French department. Some 1,800 French police officers have already been deployed in Mayotte to deal with the evacuation drive of non-Mayotte people, particularly the criminal gangs.
