"Clandestines": the hidden face of immigration in France
In Mayotte, a small piece of French land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, illegal immigration is reaching record highs. According to the figures, between 30% and 50% of the inhabitants are illegal migrants.
Coming from the Comoros archipelago, located some 70 km away, men, women and children dock daily in Mayotte in "kwassa", these makeshift boats, designed for a few people and which...
more »"Clandestines": the hidden face of immigration in France
In Mayotte, a small piece of French land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, illegal immigration is reaching record highs. According to the figures, between 30% and 50% of the inhabitants are illegal migrants.
Coming from the Comoros archipelago, located some 70 km away, men, women and children dock daily in Mayotte in "kwassa", these makeshift boats, designed for a few people and which embark nearly fifty causing the deaths of hundreds of migrants each year.
Fleeing the misery of their country, one of the poorest in the world, many women decide to try their luck in Mayotte: Here is already France. Here, they will be able to give birth free of charge and in good conditions, their children will go to school for free and they will obtain French nationality.
Some come with their husbands, others alone, sometimes with their children. In this region of the world where polygamy is entrenched, women often have several "husbands" but they are always the ones who take care of the children.
The trip to Mayotte, which lasts more than fourteen hours, is an ordeal, the sea is sometimes unleashed, some migrant women lose their lives or see their children drown.
Once in Mayotte, the ordeal is far from over. You have to find where to stay. Most of the illegal women have no choice, they live in "bangas", tin huts without water or electricity.
To support themselves, unable to work, they would be immediately arrested by the PAF (Border Police), who survey the slums every day to "hunt for migrants".
I chose to realize this subject because I wanted to approach the migration issue from a feminine angle. However, in Mayotte, clandestine women, often alone with their children, are more numerous than elsewhere because of the matriarchal tradition specific to this region of the world.
So I spent long months observing his wives, talking with them and understanding their story. From this work of approach I drew a series of portraits, taking care to always hide the faces of these "clandestines" who live in fear of being sent back to the Comoros.
Through this report I also want to draw attention to this little piece of France, certainly far from metropolitan realities, a real “open-air shantytown” where tensions are growing and which could very quickly turn into chaos.That's why, the operation called "Wuambushu" ("recovery" in Mahorais) against delinquency and against illegal immigration is about to begin. The authorities intend to carry out the expulsion of foreigners in an irregular situation and the "stripping" of unhealthy neighborhoods, often squatted. The government has not given a launch or end date for this so-called "Wuambushu" ("recovery" in Mahorais) operation. But some 2,000 police and gendarmes, including hundreds of metropolitan reinforcements, are already mobilized in the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
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