MAYOTTE, NEW GATEWAY TO EUROPE

French President Emmanuel Macron is currently visiting Mayotte, France’s most impoverished department. Located in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique, the island is faced with daunting challenges: scarce water resources, sky-high birth rates, poverty, crime plus illegal immigration from neighboring Comoros. What’s new is that asylum seekers from various war-torn regions now see Mayotte as a viable entry point into Europe, one that is thought to circumvent the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean. Our team reports.