France is preparing a massive operation to expel illegal immigrants from the Mayotte archipelago | world

Mayotte is a small French province in the Indian Ocean, between the island of Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique. Although it is a small area, the archipelago gets a lot of attention from the French media on Friday (21), as a large-scale operation against illegal immigration is scheduled to begin next Monday (24).

The subject is the title Figaro, which also includes an interview with the French Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, who details the operation. In all, 1,800 police and security personnel must be mobilized to expel illegal immigrants, known in France as “paperless”, without papers, without documents.

“So far and so close,” the editorial credits the publication, noting that despite the geographical distance between Paris and Mayotte, the island’s “mass and chaotic” emigration is silently affecting the overall structure, the deterioration of the quality of services, in addition to being associated with the growth of local delinquency.

However, Mayotte was just an immigration controversy at the time. on its inner pages, Le Figaro It deals with the adoption by the European Parliament of a text calling for funding for the construction of walls in the European Union specifically to counter migratory pressures.

To illustrate the article, a picture shows the small tents of migrants installed under the snow and next to a barbed wire barrier.

The newspaper’s headline warns that “Maiotti prepares for mass expulsions.” La Croixwho is concerned about the humanitarian crisis that could spread in the region during the next few days, amid a population of more than 350 thousand people in the archipelago, with an official estimate of 256.5 thousand people.

Really site Franceinfo He assesses how the operation, called Wuambushu, which means “to resume,” and which should last at least two months, intends to bring back these illegal immigrants, mostly from the neighboring Comoros archipelago, and how the action hopes to dismantle some 40 criminal organizations operating in the islands today.

The President of the Comoros, Ghazali El Othmani, declared his hope to “cancel the operation”, admitting that he “does not have the means to prevent it by force”. In recent weeks, intense negotiations have taken place between Moroni and Paris, raising the possibility of a last-minute agreement.