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.
MAYOTTE, NEW GATEWAY TO EUROPE
Investigation in English
5 minutes
FRANCE 24
FOCUS programme
Reporter : Valentine Patry
Cameraman : Renan Hellec
Editor : Julien Prat
Voice over : Marjorie Hache
October 2019
“I crossed Yemen, Jordan, Abu Dhabi, took a flight to Kenya, a boat to Comoros and then Mayotte. This whole trip cost me 3000 dollars.”
Abdulalem Al-Hemyari, Asylum seeker from Yemen