Édouard Philippe proposes Mayotte immigration freeze in clash with Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Policy platform in the Indian Ocean territory

Former French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe visited Mayotte on 21 and 22 August 2026, setting out a series of hardline immigration measures ahead of the presidential election. During his visit to the overseas department, the Horizons party leader inspected the Pamandzi administrative detention center for foreign nationals facing expulsion and visited the informal settlement of Tsoundzou in Mamoudzou. Addressing local officials who expressed frustration with past government pledges, Philippe called for closing migration channels entirely. His proposals include suspending family reunification residence permits, pausing asylum requests, freezing birthright citizenship rules on the island, and creating an offshore return center in East Africa. He also called for increasing naval enforcement assets to halt boat arrivals from the Comoros and managing migration flows linked to the African Great Lakes region.

I am not proposing to abolish the right of asylum in France. But I consider that in Mayotte, we must stop all forms of legal and illegal immigration, stop issuing residence permits for family reunification, and step up our game.

Left-wing opposition and political dispute

The platform drew immediate criticism from La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon during his party's summer university and in an interview on TF1. Mélenchon described the proposals as provocative and unfeasible, warning the former prime minister against yielding to demagoguery. While Mélenchon acknowledged that Mayotte has reached absorption limits following destruction caused by Cyclone Chido, he maintained that France must address the situation through diplomatic talks with the Union of the Comoros.

You must not say things that cannot be done and where no one knows how they would be carried out. If it is about pushing people back into the sea, that makes no sense. He knows that just as we do.

Public service pressures and the political calendar

Responding to Mélenchon on 22 August, Philippe urged his opponent to travel to the archipelago to observe conditions on the ground. Philippe argued that migration directly impairs local infrastructure, citing disruptions to drinking water distribution, school organization, and healthcare access. Official data from national statistics bureau Insee records Mayotte's population at 323,000 residents, with nearly half holding foreign nationality. The political terrain remains contested in the department, where Marine Le Pen captured 59% of the second-round vote in the 2022 presidential election. Philippe stated that he welcomed a contest of competing proposals, while French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu is scheduled to arrive on the island on Wednesday.

I would like him to come here and see that the migration crisis here is acute and that it has impacts, not just on broad matters of principle, but on the daily lives of all our French fellow citizens living in Mayotte.