The law for the refoundation of Mayotte validated by the Constitutional Council

The Constitutional Council on Thursday approved, with some reservations, the government's law to "rebuild Mayotte" , which aims in particular to tighten immigration rules and combat informal housing in France's poorest department.

Referred to in mid-July by Socialist, Insoumis, and Green MPs who called for the censorship of numerous measures in the immigration section of the law, the Council ruled the provisions were in conformity with the Constitution. The parliamentarians were primarily attacking a measure making obtaining a residence permit, for parents of French children, conditional on legal entry into the country.

A provision "manifestly contrary to the principle of equality", and which in particular undermines "the principle of protecting the best interests of the child", argued the deputies, believing that this will "keep children whose parents will not have the right to remain in France in poverty and homelessness".

But the Council considered that the demographic characteristics of the community, "subject to very significant migratory flows", constitute " specific characteristics and constraints within the meaning of Article 73 of the Constitution", justifying the establishment in Mayotte of differences in treatment with the national territory.

"The population of Mayotte includes, compared to the entire population residing in France, a high proportion of people of foreign nationality, many of whom are in an irregular situation, as well as a high number of children born to foreign parents," the Sages recalled.

The Constitutional Council considers that the particular migratory situation in Mayotte justifies a tightening of the law, but makes two reservations. It rules that the administration is required to issue a long-stay visa to a foreign national who requests one and whose child is a minor of French nationality residing in France.

The Sages also validated other measures contested by the deputies, such as the possibility of withdrawing the residence permit of the parent of a child considered to be a threat to public order, the centralization of paternity recognitions in Mamoudzou to combat fraudulent recognitions, or the possibility of placing minors accompanying an adult who is subject to a removal measure in a detention zone.

The Council also endorsed several provisions aimed at combating informal housing in the Indian Ocean archipelago, including one stating that such housing is not considered "normal" housing, a necessary condition for benefiting from the right to family reunification.

The Sages finally validate the possibility, in the event of forced evacuation of such informal housing, of derogating for ten years from the obligation to offer rehousing or emergency accommodation, if the administration proves that it cannot materially do so, due to the passage of Cyclone Chido in December 2024.