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Report
Mayotte, France's overseas territory marred by multiple crisis
FRANCE 24 English
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12/16/2024
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Transcript
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00:00
Let's look at it from a political and international perspective. I mean, this territory, Mayotte,
00:06
grabbing headlines earlier this year because of activists protesting against poverty, migration,
00:12
gang crime, paralyzing the islands. Of course, this cyclone is the latest big blow to one
00:19
of France's poorest territories.
00:21
Absolutely. You're right. Mayotte, for all the wrong reasons, began this year in the
00:26
headlines with those massive demonstrations, and it's ending the year, once again, for
00:29
all the wrong reasons, with a massive tragic weather event. Look, it might just be a blip
00:35
in the Indian Ocean, wedged in between Madagascar and the southeast coast of Africa, Mozambique.
00:41
Unless you zoom on a Google map, you won't even see Mayotte. But it packs massive problems
00:47
for the French central authorities here in Paris, 7,500 kilometers away.
00:51
I want to show our viewers just a few of the reasons why Mayotte has been such a massive
00:56
social issue, economic issue for Paris. It is the most densely populated of French departments.
01:01
And let's not forget, it is an overseas French department. They call it the 101st Department.
01:05
320,000 people packed on actually two islands. One's a larger one. Poverty rate, that is
01:11
not a typo. 75%, three-quarters of people below the national poverty line. Unemployment,
01:17
over one-third of Mayotte are actually unemployed. Now, those figures are bad enough, and they
01:23
are heavily reliant on Mayotte, on aid, on assistance from the central mainland authorities
01:29
here in mainland France.
01:31
Look at another chart here, that if we could bring it up. This is the poorest department.
01:36
We heard in that report earlier, we say it, and you know, it's now become, people just
01:40
throw it out, the poorest department. Look how poor we're talking about. That top bar
01:44
there is Paris area, the Ile-de-France area, over 24,000 euros a year in average income.
01:50
Look at Mayotte, 3,000, you know, just over 3,000 euros a year. So when we say Mayotte
01:55
is seven times poorer than Ile-de-France, you know, the statistics speak for themselves
02:01
there. And this is impacting in a million ways, because obviously, education, health
02:05
care levels, a lot of people don't have access to education and health care. The poverty
02:09
has also created a problem with public services. The authorities don't give enough. There was
02:12
a massive drought problem earlier this year. There's lack of access to clean water. And
02:17
you have just a lot of kids who are not in school, not being educated. That creates problems,
02:22
obviously, for the workforce of the future. I'll note that the average age in Mayotte
02:25
is 23, compared to 41 average on the French mainland.
02:29
Now, immigration, much of it from nearby Comoros Islands has posed great challenges for those
02:35
living in Mayotte, many illegal immigrants living in a fear of being detained.
02:40
Absolutely. There's an absolutely eye-popping chart that I, you know, I saw just a little
02:45
bit before I came to the studio here. I knew that there had been a problem, but not to
02:50
this extent. Mayotte, you see there, that yellow, that is non-French citizens living
02:56
on the island. And that number below it, if you can't read it, is 48%. Nearly half of
03:00
the Mayorette are not French citizens. And you say, well, how'd that happen? How'd that
03:04
situation come about? Given the fact that that left-hand chart shows just a tiny sliver
03:08
of yellow of non-French citizens in all the remaining French territories. The reason is
03:13
relatively simple, if you know your geography and history. It's that Mayotte is part of
03:17
what's called the Comoros Island chain. And back in 1970s, mid-70s, some of the Comoros
03:23
voted to break away, go their own way, become independent. But two of those islands, the
03:28
ones we're talking about today in Mayotte, they basically voted to stay with France.
03:32
That was a curse and a blessing in the end, Annette, because yeah, they got to benefit
03:36
from the French social security system, from the French health system, and getting that
03:40
assistance I was talking about from mainland France. But they also became a magnet and
03:44
a big magnet for those from the Comoros Islands who saw even poverty-stricken Mayotte that
03:49
I was just describing as an El Dorado. So they have their boat people problem, people
03:54
coming from the Comoros, people coming from the east coast of Africa, from the so-called
03:58
Great Lakes region, people coming from some from Madagascar. It's a problem that's not
04:02
going away, and it's also creating a lot of social tensions, including those demonstrations
04:08
we were talking about earlier this year. A lot of the people whose homes were destroyed
04:11
were living in corrugated metal shacks. They were illegal immigrants who were afraid to
04:15
go for help or even try to seek out any medical assistance. Why? Because they were afraid
04:20
that if they did so, they'd call attention to the authorities and they would run the
04:23
risk of being deported.
04:25
Doug Herbert, thank you so much.
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