French presidential hopeful Philippe vows to crack down on immigration to Mayotte

During a visit to Mayotte on Friday, France’s former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe vowed to crack down on immigration to the French overseas territory if he’s elected to the presidency next year.

Mayotte is a popular destination for migrants from the African continent and the nearby Comoros islands seeking a better life.

"That is why I have proposed taking back control by shutting off all the valves that can fuel immigration to the territory of Mayotte," Philippe, the founder and candidate of the centre-right Horizons party. "This means halting, for the duration of the next five-year term, all asylum applications that could be made on the territory, halting, for the duration of the term, applications relating to family reunification, and halting all factors that justify or could justify foreigners submitting a request to enter the territory of Mayotte.”

Immigration has long been a source of political tensions. A general strike in 2018 brought Mayotte to a standstill over a deal to allow the free movement of people from Comoros.

Wuambushu operation

In 2024, France launched the controversial Wuambushu operation, aimed at kicking out undocumented migrants, many of them Comorans. Paris deployed some 1,800 security forces to the island in an effort to improve living conditions and security for Mayotte locals.

"We need to take measures that give the people of Mayotte some prospects," Philippe said on Friday. "Otherwise, what’s going to happen? It will be very easy for those who go back to mainland France to say that they just have to put up with it. And there will be episodes of increasingly serious violence, as we’ve already seen.

"So we need to face reality and accept that we have to take measures that will put an end to this pull factor.”

Mayotte rejected independence in 1974 and voted to become an overseas department and regional territory in 2009.