France deprives Muslim-majority Mayotte of birthright citizenship
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Under the guise of fighting a "migration crisis", France amends its constitution and opts to deprive the archipelago's Muslim majority of birthright citizenship.
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Residents queue for water in Tsoundzou, on the French Indian Ocean Island Mayotte, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 (AP)
French authorities announced today a new anti-Muslim plan targeting Mayotte by which the birthright citizenship on the island will be revoked. The country's poorest overseas territory was targeted multiple times before by the authorities under claims of a "migration crisis".
Mayotte is a French Indian Ocean island, and the majority of its residents (97%) are Muslims who came from Comoros seeking a better life. It is one of the regions where France deports immigrants the most, compared to the rest of the French administrative provinces.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin declared to reporters in his visit to Mayotte today, "We are going to take a radical decision," emphasizing that "it will no longer be possible to become French if you are not the child of a French parent."
He explained that this step requires an amendment to the Constitution, but it will "reduce the attractiveness of the archipelago for prospective migrants."
In December, the French parliament passed a strict far-right immigration bill, but some of its contentious additions were disapproved by France's top constitutional authority in January.
For the past three weeks, activists have been striking and roadblocking in protest of the lack of security on the Island.
A sneak peek into French racism and islamophobia
Authorities on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte began destroying homes in a vast slum on May 22, 2023, as part of an operation allegedly to combat substandard housing and illegal migration, as per AFP.
Since April last year, France has deployed hundreds of police officers and gendarmes to Mayotte, the country's poorest department, to prepare for Operation Wuambushu ("Take Back" in the local tongue).
At about 7:30 am (0430 GMT) on May 22, diggers began dismantling the sheet-metal shacks in the Talus 2 slum in the Majicavo neighborhood.
Some 135 households were razed out of around 1,000 sub-standard homes slated for destruction in Mayotte.
The demolition of Talus 2 was initially slated for April 25, but it was postponed due to a court order. The French state was then authorized to continue by two successive court judgments.
France believes it is okay to kill sometimes... if they're Muslim
Salime Mdéré, the Vice-President of the Mayotte Department in 2023 and accordingly a French official, stated that “at a certain moment, it is necessary to kill some," referring to what he considers “thugs” and “terrorists” responsible for Mayotte’s "delinquency". The Human Rights League initiated a lawsuit against Mdéré back then.
Wuambushu had revealed several more underlying issues. The administrative detention centers in Mayotte are responsible for three-quarters of French expulsions. More than 32,000 persons, including 3,000 children, were imprisoned there in 2022, while more than 26,000 were deported from the center, primarily to other islands in the Comoros archipelago.
As of May 2023, almost 10,000 individuals had already been held in detention centers or other temporary detention facilities since January 2023.
Mayotte, a French archipelago in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique, is a relic of the French imperial past. Mayotte was formerly part of a larger archipelago comprised of three main islands (Anjouan, Mohéli, and Grande Comore), which France colonized in the nineteenth century.
In 1974, after more than 100 years of French colonial control, an auto-determination referendum was held. Except for Mayotte, all voted in favor of independence. Despite the UN's request that the archipelago's territorial integrity be respected, France chose to recognize the results independently.
