Protests over illegal immigration gripping the French island of Mayotte off Africa鈥檚 coast have an unexpected epicentre: a maternity ward packed to bursting point. Image: AFP/Ornella Lamberti
Protests over illegal immigration gripping the French island of Mayotte off Africa鈥檚 coast have an unexpected epicenter: a maternity ward packed to bursting point.
The main hospital in Mayotte, wedged between Madagascar and the southeast African mainland, is now home to the busiest maternity ward in France聽鈥� mostly serving migrant mothers.
So great is the influx of mothers from the neighbouring Comoros islands聽鈥� which are much poorer and not part of France聽鈥� that the government is now considering the drastic step of declaring the hospital as non-French territory.
Hadidja, one of the few Comoran mothers willing to speak to journalists, admitted with some embarrassment that she is here because she wants her children 鈥渢o be French.鈥�
Like thousands of others, she arrived on the island of 250,000 people last year after enduring a 17-hour crossing in a traditional kwassa-kwassa fishing boat from the Comoros island of Anjouan, 70 kilometers (43 miles) away.
She has just given birth to a boy, Hassan, in the bulging maternity ward in Mayotte鈥檚 main town of Mamoudzou after a difficult birth for her first child.
鈥淚t went badly, I suffered a lot of pain,鈥� she said in hesitant French, sitting up in bed.
鈥淚 came here because it鈥檚 a good hospital.鈥�
The flow of migration from the Comoros聽鈥� which unlike its neighbour voted for independence from France in 1974聽鈥� has been going on for years and is difficult to measure.
But the 19,000 deportations from Mayotte in 2015聽鈥� barely less than the 20,000 from all of mainland France聽鈥� give an indication of the scale of the influx.
Some 9,600 babies were delivered in the Mayotte maternity wing last year, a record for any hospital in France.
In a phenomenon echoing complaints of foreign mothers traveling to the US to give birth to children with US citizenship, some 70 percent of the mothers were undocumented immigrants, according to French national statistics agency INSEE.
鈥淭here are too many births, too many babies, too much work,鈥� said trainee nurse Moina Baco.
鈥淚鈥檝e got a baby that doesn鈥檛 even have a crib anymore. There aren鈥檛 any left.鈥�
Chief midwife Moendandze Zadibo said the hospital was so short on space that women are being transferred to other facilities just hours after giving birth if they are were doing well, to free up their beds for more arrivals.
And the thinly-stretched staff are having to deal with more complex births due to the poverty of the women arriving.
鈥淲e have more emergency caesareans, more women who arrive without ever having seen a doctor during their pregnancy,鈥� she said.
Resentment boils over
The dire situation at the maternity ward, along with growing lawlessness that locals blame on the migrants, has fed the roadblocks, strikes and protests that have paralyzed Mayotte for a month.
Local mother Mariama, 33, gave birth the day before to a little girl.
She is set to be kicked out of the hospital because she has social security, which means she has access to a private-sector midwife.
鈥淲e鈥檒l have to sort ourselves out, while those who don鈥檛 have social security will stay,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 second class聽鈥� when I pay my contributions, I pay my taxes.鈥�
The issue comes up frequently among the protesters who have been manning the street barricades in a bid to get the government 8,000 kilometres away in Paris to do something.
Midwives have a difficult time getting past the barricades 鈥渂ecause we are treated like traitors for helping foreign children give birth here,鈥� one of them told AFP.
But medical professionals say they have a duty of care to anyone who turns up.
鈥淲e are a public hospital and we look after mums. We don鈥檛 ask where they鈥檙e from,鈥� said the hospital鈥檚 director Catherine Barbezieux.
Medics oppose the idea of declaring the hospital to be a no man鈥檚 land, saying it would not stop mothers from coming to Mayotte.
鈥淭he medical community can only express the strongest reservations about the idea,鈥� said Philippe Durasnel, vice-president of the hospital鈥檚 medical commission.
鈥淕iven that women are coming so that their children can have French nationality, they will simply give birth at home or in the bush. We鈥檇 be opening the door to potential tragedies.鈥� CC
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