Mayotte, France's overseas territory marred by multiple crisis

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00:00Let's look at it from a political and international perspective. I mean, this territory, Mayotte,

00:06grabbing headlines earlier this year because of activists protesting against poverty, migration,

00:12gang crime, paralyzing the islands. Of course, this cyclone is the latest big blow to one

00:19of France's poorest territories.

00:21Absolutely. You're right. Mayotte, for all the wrong reasons, began this year in the

00:26headlines with those massive demonstrations, and it's ending the year, once again, for

00:29all the wrong reasons, with a massive tragic weather event. Look, it might just be a blip

00:35in the Indian Ocean, wedged in between Madagascar and the southeast coast of Africa, Mozambique.

00:41Unless you zoom on a Google map, you won't even see Mayotte. But it packs massive problems

00:47for the French central authorities here in Paris, 7,500 kilometers away.

00:51I want to show our viewers just a few of the reasons why Mayotte has been such a massive

00:56social issue, economic issue for Paris. It is the most densely populated of French departments.

01:01And let's not forget, it is an overseas French department. They call it the 101st Department.

01:05320,000 people packed on actually two islands. One's a larger one. Poverty rate, that is

01:11not a typo. 75%, three-quarters of people below the national poverty line. Unemployment,

01:17over one-third of Mayotte are actually unemployed. Now, those figures are bad enough, and they

01:23are heavily reliant on Mayotte, on aid, on assistance from the central mainland authorities

01:29here in mainland France.

01:31Look at another chart here, that if we could bring it up. This is the poorest department.

01:36We heard in that report earlier, we say it, and you know, it's now become, people just

01:40throw it out, the poorest department. Look how poor we're talking about. That top bar

01:44there is Paris area, the Ile-de-France area, over 24,000 euros a year in average income.

01:50Look at Mayotte, 3,000, you know, just over 3,000 euros a year. So when we say Mayotte

01:55is seven times poorer than Ile-de-France, you know, the statistics speak for themselves

02:01there. And this is impacting in a million ways, because obviously, education, health

02:05care levels, a lot of people don't have access to education and health care. The poverty

02:09has also created a problem with public services. The authorities don't give enough. There was

02:12a massive drought problem earlier this year. There's lack of access to clean water. And

02:17you have just a lot of kids who are not in school, not being educated. That creates problems,

02:22obviously, for the workforce of the future. I'll note that the average age in Mayotte

02:25is 23, compared to 41 average on the French mainland.

02:29Now, immigration, much of it from nearby Comoros Islands has posed great challenges for those

02:35living in Mayotte, many illegal immigrants living in a fear of being detained.

02:40Absolutely. There's an absolutely eye-popping chart that I, you know, I saw just a little

02:45bit before I came to the studio here. I knew that there had been a problem, but not to

02:50this extent. Mayotte, you see there, that yellow, that is non-French citizens living

02:56on the island. And that number below it, if you can't read it, is 48%. Nearly half of

03:00the Mayorette are not French citizens. And you say, well, how'd that happen? How'd that

03:04situation come about? Given the fact that that left-hand chart shows just a tiny sliver

03:08of yellow of non-French citizens in all the remaining French territories. The reason is

03:13relatively simple, if you know your geography and history. It's that Mayotte is part of

03:17what's called the Comoros Island chain. And back in 1970s, mid-70s, some of the Comoros

03:23voted to break away, go their own way, become independent. But two of those islands, the

03:28ones we're talking about today in Mayotte, they basically voted to stay with France.

03:32That was a curse and a blessing in the end, Annette, because yeah, they got to benefit

03:36from the French social security system, from the French health system, and getting that

03:40assistance I was talking about from mainland France. But they also became a magnet and

03:44a big magnet for those from the Comoros Islands who saw even poverty-stricken Mayotte that

03:49I was just describing as an El Dorado. So they have their boat people problem, people

03:54coming from the Comoros, people coming from the east coast of Africa, from the so-called

03:58Great Lakes region, people coming from some from Madagascar. It's a problem that's not

04:02going away, and it's also creating a lot of social tensions, including those demonstrations

04:08we were talking about earlier this year. A lot of the people whose homes were destroyed

04:11were living in corrugated metal shacks. They were illegal immigrants who were afraid to

04:15go for help or even try to seek out any medical assistance. Why? Because they were afraid

04:20that if they did so, they'd call attention to the authorities and they would run the

04:23risk of being deported.

04:25Doug Herbert, thank you so much.

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