Comoros has refused to allow a boat carrying migrants to dock from the French Indian Ocean department Mayotte, where the authorities have announced a controversial operation against illegal migrants.
Comoros decided to suspended all passenger traffic at the Mutsamudu port on the island of Anjouan, where deported migrants usually land on Anjouan Island, from Monday to Wednesday, after authorities in Mayotte announced Operation Wuambushu (Take back) to remove illegal migrants who have settled in slums on the island.
"As long as the French side decides to do things unilaterally, we will take our decisions," the Comoran Interior Minister Fakridine Mahamoud said Monday, adding that none of the deported migrants "will enter a Comoran port".
Around half of Mayotte's roughly 350,000 population is estimated to be foreign, most of them Comoran.
France intends to send those without documents to Anjouan, which lies only 70 kilometres from Mayotte.
🇫🇷 The Indian Ocean archipelago of #Comoros vowed Friday not to accept migrants expelled from the neighbouring #French island of Mayotte.https://t.co/hKg0Tzzpin
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) April 21, 2023
Diplomatic spat intensifies
Comoros had warned last week that it would not accept migrants expelled under the plan and intense negotiations with France in recent weeks had raised the possibility of a last-minute deal.
Comoros' leader Azali Assoumani – who has held the rotating presidency of the African Union since February – said he hoped France would abandon the operation, admitting he did not have "the means to stop the operation through force."
On Friday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed the operation would take place but declined to give a date for its start.
Some 1,800 French police officers have already been mobilised in Mayotte to deal with "criminal gangs," he said.
À Mayotte, nous menons une action résolue contre la délinquance et les bandes, avec des moyens exceptionnels.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) April 24, 2023
Ce week-end, 26 personnes ont été interpellées dont 4 dans le cadre du démantèlement d’un réseau de prostitution. pic.twitter.com/8dMMDNYfzI
Mayotte is the fourth island of the Comoros archipelago that France held on to after an initial referendum in 1974, but is still claimed by the Comoros.
In March 2011 Mayotte became the 101st French department, or administrative area, in accordance with a referendum two years earlier.
The move made it an attraction to migrants, looking to reach European territory, and ever since it has been fighting illegal migration.
In 2019 France pledged 150 million euros in development aid as part of a deal to tackle human trafficking and ease the repatriation of Comorans from Mayotte.
