File photo: People react during the demolition of an informal settlement in Langoni, Mamoudzou, on the island of Mayotte on April 27, 2023. (Photo by Patrick Meinhardt / AFP)
Paris: The presidents of France and the Comoros have met in a bid to soothe tensions caused by French plans to expel undocumented Comorans from its Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, officials said on Tuesday.
President Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Azali Assoumani spoke late Monday in Paris, after France said last month that it would deport Comoran migrants and destroy slums as part of a security operation in Mayotte.
Hamada Madi, a diplomatic advisor to Assoumani, said the meeting lasted 40 minutes but provided no further details. The French presidency also confirmed the talks.
The security operation in Mayotte, dubbed "Wuambushu", led the Comoros to say it would refuse to accept deportees from Mayotte, saying it could not cope with the influx.
Around half of Mayotte's roughly 350,000 population is estimated to be foreign, most of them Comoran.
It is the fourth island of the Comoros archipelago, which was once a French territory.
France retained control over Mayotte after a 1974 referendum, but the island is still claimed by the Union of the Comoros, which governs the three other islands.
Despite being France's poorest department, Mayotte has French infrastructure and welfare, making it a tempting destination for Comorans living in poverty.
Many pay smugglers to make the dangerous, sometimes deadly sea crossing to Mayotte -- 70 kilometres (45 miles) away at the closest point -- on rickety fishing boats.
Interior and foreign ministers from both countries also met on Tuesday and released a joint statement pledging to increase dialogue to "cool the tensions".
They also said they would "coordinate common efforts to save human lives at sea and manage human flows between islands".
Assoumani in an interview with French daily Le Monde published on Monday said he wanted France to lift visa requirements for Comorans travelling to Mayotte to prevent "our children dying at sea".
But he said he did not think the government would do this in view of internal political pressure from the anti-immigration far right.
