allAfrica.com: Comoros: Hope is a Boat to Mayotte (Page 1 of 2)

At night, you can clearly see the lights of Mayotte, a French island in the Indian Ocean, from Mramani, a rundown coastal village without electricity on the neighbouring Comoran island of Anjouan. For most, the view across the water promises a brighter future.

Comoros is one of the poorest countries in the world while Mayotte, 70km away, is part of the European Union (EU) and is rich. With the economic disparity between the two islands widening, an increasing number of impoverished Comoran migrants are braving the ocean swells in search of a better life.

The voyage in rickety wooden vessels, known as kwassa-kwassa, is not without risk: Although there are no reliable statistics, most estimates put fatalities at between 200 and 500 a year.

"Many children try to get across, often alone - they are sent by their families. Some are as young as 10 or 11 but it is worth the risk, because here [Mayotte] they can have a life," Hamada Bouhoutane (not his real name) told IRIN.

Many of those risking the crossing are pregnant women; a child born on Mayotte is granted local citizenship, opening the door to the bigger prize of French and EU citizenship. About 7,400 babies are born on Mayotte every year, 5,000 of them at the hospital in Momoudz, the capital, which has the highest birth rate in the EU.

Bouhoutane, originally from Grande Comore, the largest of the three islands in the Union of Comoros, made his way to Mayotte via Anjouan on a kwassa-kwassa in 2002, when he was aged 17. "One of the main reasons people from Comoros come here is for medical attention - I was sick and could not get better on Grand Comore. In Mayotte there are hospitals and doctors," he said.

"I left Grand Comore and stayed for a day [in Anjouan]. I found a kwassa-kwassa that would take me to Mayotte and we waited for it to get dark. There were 18 of us on the boat and we each paid the equivalent of â‚¬100 [US$148]," Bouhoutane said. Traffickers charge up to double that for a spot on a boat but can bring the price down to pack as many bodies as possible on board.

"We left at around seven and got to Mayotte at about 11 in the evening. Three hours later I was in the hospital," he added. Bouhoutane was treated for a lung ailment and has since fully recovered.

While one island is kept afloat

Geographically, culturally and historically Mayotte is part of the Comoros archipelago. The four stars in the Comoros Union flag represent the islands of Grande Comore, Moheli, Anjouan and Mayotte. But in a move that remains controversial, after a combined four-island vote led to independence from France in 1975, Mayotte unilaterally held a referendum and chose to remain under French control.

In the past, Comoran citizens were allowed to travel to and from Mayotte freely, but while Mayotte prospered, the post-independence history of the three islands in the Union of Comoros was characterised by separatism and some 20 attempted or successful coups.

In 1995 visa requirements were introduced, restricting travel between Mayotte and the Union islands, and many Comorans already on Mayotte became "clandestine" or "illegal migrants".

Official estimates from France put the number of "clandestines" on Mayotte at 45,000, but the Red Cross believes the figure could be as high as 60,000 and estimated the total population of the island at between 165,000 and 200,000.

Mayotte, like the Union islands, is far from self-sufficient and has become heavily dependent on French financial assistance delivered mainly via social benefits and subsidies, making it the envy of the island chain. Most "clandestines" are unwilling to leave once they have set foot on Mayotte.

"After 24 hours I was let go from the hospital but I never went back [to Grande Comore] because here I could go to a good school and there would always be a hospital," Bouhoutane said.

The others are sinking

Years of political instability on Comoros brought a steady decline in standard of living and, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen by -0.5 percent annually since 1990 to just $640 per capita in 2005.

"In the villages you only see children and old people. There is no one to do the work - all the young strong people have left," Elyachroutu Mohamed Caabi, a former Union vice-president, now an economic and social advisor to the semi-autonomous government of Anjouan, told IRIN.

We need a solution because the people are suffering. Poverty is increasing, there is no development... the international community will not start helping until we have stability

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