"That's where my life"

From the Comorian island of Anjouan, undocumented migrants often have more ties to Mayotte.
The Administrative Detention Center (ARC) of Pamandzi, Abdou knows well. "I spent four times, I was expelled four times, I returned four times," he said in a bitter smile, sitting at the bottom of his tin box located in the village of Mtsapere. "When you are there, we did not want to talk," he says. 'Sleeping or watching on TV, but we do not talk. It is hoped that thing be taken to the airport and board the aircraft. "
Arrived in Mayotte in 1999, Abdou, a native of Anjouan, the island nearest located 70 kilometers north of Mayotte, was arrested in 2004 in 2007 and twice this year. "I'm always came back a few days later, the time to send me the money to pay the smugglers. It is here that my life: I work, my friends, my children, who were both born in Mayotte ... "His wife, she lives in Anjouan last few months. "She was sick and had to return to his village for treatment by plants." Abdou has no papers, but he works in a sewing workshop "that works well." Recently, he and his colleague also undocumented have made dresses for the Miss Mayotte ...
"No need for paper." His neighbor, Mohamed, a Anjouan who spent his life between his native island and Mayotte, made better: it works in a crafts workshop carved furniture that regularly provides prefects on departure. "We have also sold parts to General Council," he said. "We are all illegal."
Farther north, Majicavo in a landscape of urban anarchy, Salima took advantage of his granddaughters. The story of this grandmother is emblematic: aged 58 years, this mother of five children including three girls, themselves mothers of two children each, all born in Mayotte, had never asked for a residence permit. "When it arrived in Mayotte, it does not prompt. People did not need to have papers, "says one of his daughters. On 5 January 2006, while organizing police raided his neighborhood, she was arrested. Arrival in Mayotte fourteen years ago, she was escorted to the border that evening. "We came to Mayotte in 1992," said his daughter Fatima. "Me, I had 5 years. Before, we lived in Anjouan. My father came here to work, then we joined. It was arrived by plane, even on the buffer [of the Border Police] on our passports. At the time, there was no visa, people were free. It was all done our studies here. We always lived in this house. "Lost in Anjouan in an island where only a distant cousin was able to host it, Salima had to wait six months before to return" home ", as explained his daughters. "What I did in Anjouan? My children are in Mayotte, my assets too. I'm foreign to Anjouan. This is where I made my life. "
"Near". According to official estimates, the illegal immigrants account for one third of the 178 000 inhabitants of Mayotte. This notion is, however, in this particular island in 1975, chose to remain French when his three opted for independence. "Passed in the common language to describe the collective of immigrants Comoros Mayotte, the term" illegal "seems quite inappropriate to describe the existential reality of this population, noted sociologist David Guyot. The great cultural proximity between Comoros and French native of Mayotte led to a very diffuse integration of the immigrant population in the urban and social fabric of the territory. "
"We are dealing with illegal immigrants, but we live like Mahorais. We prayed together. It participates in the same ceremonies. We play the same teams, "said Houssein, a young athlete's physique who Kaweni vegetation, the largest slum in the crowded island where thousands of Comorians in sheet metal boxes perched on the slopes of the hill.
On the heights of the slum, anger often succeeds resignation at the sight of the industrial area that dominates the area. "The Mahorais we reject, but when they need a mason, they call us, we pay 250 euros per month, then we forget." Periodically, the inhabitants of Mayotte in effect demanding their departure. "They pose a threat, both safely and economically," said a member of an association defending the interests of Mahorais. " "They should all leave," he said. While recognizing that they are "brothers", it believes that "the choice to stay Mahorais French must be respected" and that Comoran "simply stay home."
While the wrecks Kwassa, clandestine boats, many are between Anjouan and Mayotte (there are six in 2008 for a review of 25 dead and 80 missing), the latest of which was 14 victims on November 20 , Showed how deep is the tension in the island. The following day, the inhabitants of the town of Bouni refused recovered the bodies are buried in the cemetery villagers. "The state returns alive, he may well return the dead," explained the demonstrators ...
Source: http://www.liberation.fr//0101306334-c-est-la-qu-est-ma-vie