Mayotte

Mayotte
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: wetterkontor.de

	Mayotte
flag	coat of arms
Official language	French
Capital	Mamoudzou
Form of government	Overseas department
Head of state	President Emmanuel Macron
Head of government	President of the General Council Soibahadine Ibrahim Ramadani
surface	374 km²
population	256,518 (December 14, 2017)
Population density	685.9 inhabitants per km²
gross domestic product	€ 2,322 million (2016)
Gross domestic product per inhabitant	€ 9,052 (2016)
currency	Euro (EUR)
Time zone	UTC + 3
Internet TLD	.yt
Telephone code	+262
	Map of Mayotte

Mayotte , an area consisting of a main island and several smaller islands, is located on the northern edge of the Mozambique Strait in the Indian Ocean between the northern tip of Madagascar and northern Mozambique . Geographically, it belongs to the Comoros archipelago .

Mayotte is an overseas department and region of France . Previously, it had been a local authority of the French Republic since 1976 ( Collectivité territoriale de la République française , since 2001 under the name Collectivité départementale ). On March 31, 2011 Mayotte received the status of the 101st French department ; it became part of the European Union as an outermost region (Outermost Region, OR) on January 1, 2014 and has the same status as French Guiana .

98% of the population are Sunni Muslims who are considered to be particularly tolerant. The official language is French , but the main language spoken is Mahorish , a variant of Comorian, which is closely related to Swahili . The island is called “Mahoré” in Mahorish, from which the name of the language “Mahorish” and the attribute “Mahorish” are derived. The residents of Mayotte are called "Mahorer".

geography

View of Sada

Bay in front of Mamoudzou , the capital of Mayotte

The Mayotte archipelago consists of the main island "Grande Terre" (also called Mayotte , like the whole overseas territory itself ), the secondary island "Petite Terre" (Pamanzi) and several smaller and uninhabited islands (îlots). The land area is about 374 km². At around nine million years old, Mayotte is the Comoros' oldest volcanic island. Coral reefs surround the islands. In the rainy season from November to March the temperatures are higher than in the dry season. The highest point is Mont Benara on the main island at 660 meters . The capital Mamoudzou is also on the main island, while the Dzaoudzi Pamandzi International Airport is on Petite Terre.

Due to its peripheral location in the Indian Ocean and the lack of light sources on the island, Mayotte is hardly affected by light pollution .

In 2018, an 800-meter-high submarine volcano formed on the seabed east of Mayotte , which was noticeable in the region through a series of smaller earthquakes and fish deaths .

history

Postage stamp from the colonial era

Mayotte had been in the hands of Malagasy rulers and local sultans since 1500. Slave hunts by the Malagasy people of the Sakalava largely depopulated the island until it was declared a protectorate by France in 1841 at the request of the defenseless sultan for a sum of 1000 piastres . In the 1974 vote , it was the only group of islands in the archipelago to maintain ties with France and thus renounced independence. Since then, the Comoros state has laid claim to Mayotte and does not recognize that it belongs to France. This is based on a UN resolution from 1979.

In a referendum on March 29, 2009, the majority of Mayotte's residents supported that the area should receive the competences of the overseas departments and regions under Article 73 of the French Constitution . As a result, Mayotte became the 101st department in France on March 31, 2011.

According to Marie-Claire Thull, Mayotte's per capita gross domestic product was ten times that of the Union of Comoros in the early 2010s . However, the GDP per capita is less than a third compared to the heartland of France. The French Embassy in Germany announced in December 2010 that it was the aim of French policy to “bring the standard of living of the Mahoran population up to the level of those in the motherland”.

Mayotte became part of the European Union on January 1, 2014 as the outermost region (OR - Outermost Region).

politics

Mayotte has two MPs in the French National Assembly (since June 2012) and two Senators in the Senate . From 1976 to 2001 Mayotte was a local authority (Collectivité territoriale) under Article 72 of the Constitution , was named Collectivité départementale in July 2001 and in 2007 under Article 74 the status of Collectivité d'outre-mer ("Overseas Corporation"). Mayotte has a General Council and has been an overseas department since March 31, 2011 , but was not part of the European Union until the end of a transition period on December 31, 2013 .

A small contingent of French soldiers from the Détachement de Légion Etrangère de Mayotte ( Foreign Legion ) are stationed on the island to this day .

Mayotte does not belong to the customs area of the European Community according to Art. 3 Para. 1 Customs Code of the Union ( ZK ).

Legal status

French law has been in force on the island since 2014. Until December 31, 2013, residents of Mayotte could decide which law was applicable to them, either:

general (French) law as it applies in European France ( civil code , notaries, administration, courts, etc.) or
the so-called statut personnel , then European law did not apply, not even laïcité . This status was only possible for the Islamic residents of Mayotte and immigrants from the Comoros or from northwest Madagascar . The jurisprudence was carried out by Islamic kadis . Affected were the legal status of women (including one-sided divorce, polygamy ), inheritance law (e.g. discrimination based on religious affiliation) and land law. According to Muslim law, marriages were entered into from the age of 15.

The legal peculiarity of the statut personnel was an obstacle to the full integration of Mayotte into the French state and the European Union . On March 29, 2009, a referendum took place on the question of whether Mayotte should be transformed into a fully-fledged French department . With a turnout of 61.4%, 95.2% voted “Yes”.

With the incorporation in 2011, the legal system was adapted to that of the mother country. On January 1, 2014 Mayotte received the status of “Outermost Region” and has been part of the EU ever since. Since then, French law has been mandatory.

administration

Mayotte is divided into 17 communes and 13 cantons which generally do not coincide spatially with the communes. There are no arrondissements . The 17 municipalities are united in five municipal associations :

Municipalities in Mayotte

Cantons in Mayotte

Associations of municipalities in Mayotte

See also:

society

Women have a relatively strong position in mahoran society. They are traditionally the homeowners. The men move in with their wives and leave their homes in the event of a divorce, which gives them some financial security. Every man has to build a house or a floor for his daughters or sisters. The houses are passed on from mothers to daughters.

The families are relatively unstable, which is reflected in a high divorce rate, but also a high rate of remarriage. Divorces are often filed by the women, which is not a social shame. Polygamy has recently been officially banned. At the age of 14, the boys traditionally move to mud huts (bangas) next to their parents' house in order to become independent. The Bangas are passed on from brother to brother. The girls stay in their parents' house.

Children of arrested illegally immigrant parents are often left behind on Mayotte by them; in some cases their existence is concealed from French executive bodies. Then they are left to their own devices and join gangs whose members do not attend school, cannot find legal work and mostly live from theft. Adult people “sans papiers” (“without papers”, i.e. without a residence permit) are regularly apprehended by the police, but de facto cannot be deported, as the Union of Comoros does not take back citizens of its own or people who have not yet been granted citizenship.

Effects of global refugee movements in the 21st century

According to the 2002 census, of 160,301 residents, 64.7% were born in Mayotte and 3.9% in other French areas. 28.1% had immigrated from the neighboring islands of the independent Comoros , 2.8% from Madagascar and the remaining 0.5% from other countries. In July 2004, 178,438 inhabitants were counted, more than half of whom were younger than 20 years.

According to data from Mansour Kamardine (Mayor of Mayotte 2002-2007), 52% of the population were illegal immigrants and their children in 2017, most of whom enter via the neighboring Comoros island of Anjouan. Most of these immigrants are Africans from the Great Lakes, Pakistanis and Madagascans. In 2015, an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 illegal immigrants lived on Mayotte, mostly people from the surrounding islands. Since the immigrants mostly dare to cross to Mayotte in boats called kwassa-kwassa at night , it is difficult to effectively prevent illegal immigration, although there are Frontex- like controls of the waters around Mayotte , especially since the boat occupants are at risk of capsizing die, accept. In 2013, the President of the Comoros, Ikililou Dhoinine, caused a stir at the UN General Assembly when he told delegates in New York: “The visa, which kills 10,000 of my compatriots, makes the sea between Mayotte and the others Islands to the largest underwater cemetery in the world. "

Street map of Mayotte (with municipal boundaries and localities)

The main motive of the immigrants in 2007 was to work on plantations under harsh conditions, but at much more attractive wages than at home. Indeed, the French authorities are trying to expeditiously deport illegal adult immigrants who have been caught. Heavily pregnant women are strongly represented among those arriving, as France does not deport minors in principle. The hope that these children will become French citizens often fails due to the condition that they have to conscientiously comply with their compulsory schooling by their 16th birthday, which in fact cannot be enforced.

traffic

There is no rail traffic or artificial waterways on Mayotte.

Streets

Total 93 km
- 72 km of which are paved
- 21 km of which are unsurfaced

International airports

Dzaoudzi Pamandzi Airport

Mamoudzou - Dzaoudzi ferry

Ports

Dzaoudzi
"Longoni" ( Koungou )
Ferry connection from Mamoudzou to Dzaoudzi

economy

The island lives mainly from the import duties, the agricultural economy , the temporary French officials and to a small extent from tourism . Most goods have to be imported . The largest economic partners are France and the Comoros, which together handle around 95% of foreign trade. Mayotte's currency is the euro .

In 2017 the unemployment rate was 25.9%.

Sports

Mayotte is neither a member of the world football association FIFA nor the African CAF , but has a national football team .

Climate table

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Mayotte

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	30.4	30.4	30.8	30.5	29.6	28.4	27.7	27.9	28.6	29.5	30.3	30.7	O	29.6
Min. Temperature (° C)	24.2	24.2	24.4	24.2	23.3	22.1	21.0	20.0	20.5	22.0	23.2	24.0	O	22.8

Precipitation ( mm )	301	228	192	102	49	17th	17th	13	25th	52	96	164	Σ	1,256

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	6.3	6.3	7.0	7.9	9.0	8.5	8.7	9.1	8.8	8.3	8.5	7.0	O	8th

Humidity ( % )	85	86	86	85	80	78	80	81	82	83	83	85	O	82.8