In her house made of palm tree leaves and plywood rotting from the humidity on a tropical Comoros island, Aicha has hanging on the wall a map of her El Dorado, Mayotte.
Pregnant, she is ready to risk her life to make the clandestine journey across 70km of the Indian Ocean to the French overseas territory, where she wants to give birth.
The Comoros went to the polls yesterday for the first round of its presidential election, with the struggling economy a key issue, but Aicha says she would not vote because “that won’t change anything.”
Instead, like many Comorans she has her sights set on Mayotte and plans to leave “before Ramadan,” which starts in June. However, she still needs to find 500 euros (US$550) for the trip. She has no work and her husband is a civil servant whose salary is in arrears.
While the massive flow of migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the Aegean to Europe has grabbed global headlines, illegal immigration from poor countries to prosperous ones takes place worldwide.
Among the island nations of the Indian Ocean, Mayotte, consisting of two main islands and numerous islets, is a major though little-reported destination for migrants looking for a better life.
As a French overseas “department,” Mayotte is considered part of the EU member, and is more economically successful than neighboring Comoros.
The GDP of Mayotte is around 7,900 euros per person, compared with 725 euros in the Comoros — a former French colony that opted for independence rather than remaining part of France in 1975.
Many Comorans make the trip to Mayotte in their traditional fishing boat, the kwassa-kwassa, a short but perilous journey. Local police earlier this month recovered three bodies of would-be migrants.
Aicha has slipped into Mayotte illegally several times before. She gave birth there to her two oldest children, who have French birth certificates but not yet nationality and currently live in the Comoros.
Every time she goes, she gets expelled. And each time, she returns.
“I want to go to Mayotte so my baby will have a French birth certificate and to give my children a better education. I can do housework. Here that pays nothing,” she said in her shack on the island of Moroni.
The number of people from Comoros, and also Madagascar, living illegally in Mayotte “could be several tens of thousands,” according to the French government auditor.
One top candidate in yesterday’s election, Comoran Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi, said that “Mayotte will always be an option as long as there is no free circulation of goods and people” among the islands of the archipelago.
“There will always be frustration and this area of the sea will remain a cemetery for Comorans,” Soilihi said.
However, getting there is only half the battle. Authorities in Mayotte are on the lookout for illegal arrivals to send them back — nearly 20,000 migrants were made to leave in 2014.
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