France’s interior minister said Wednesday that he had ordered authorities in the French overseas department of Mayotte to arrange deportation flights for African migrants, as Paris seeks to clamp down on illegal immigration. Mayotte, an Indian Ocean island that is the poorest French department, has long struggled with social unrest and a crippling migration crisis linked to the arrival of thousands fleeing poverty and corruption on the African mainland.”From October, the prefect of Mayotte… will arrange group flights to escort illegal immigrants back to the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Bruno Retailleau, who says his priority is “restoring order”, told parliament.A member of Retailleau’s team told AFP that four such flights had already been arranged since February and that “at least three” were planned for October to help empty detention centres in Mayotte.Cooperation with the authorities in DR Congo over the issue was “excellent”, the member of the team added.Every year thousands of people from the neighbouring Comoros archipelago or mainland Africa try to reach Mayotte, often aboard small “kwassa kwassa” boats, and migrants are now estimated to make up nearly half of Mayotte’s population of around 320,000.The influx has caused major tensions including protests, with many locals complaining about crime and poverty. Retailleau also announced bilateral security agreements with countries in Africa’s Great Lakes region, including Burundi and Rwanda, to “stop the influx” of migrants. Retailleau, a hardline conservative whose recent appointment reflects the rightward shift in French politics, has said he does not think immigration presents “an opportunity” for France and vowed to use “all levers at our disposal” to bring it under control.”My only obsession is to be useful to France,” he told French daily Le Figaro in an interview published Wednesday. “That is, for me, the only thing that matters.”
