On 18th January 1995, the Balladur government decided to curtail circulation in the Comoros archipelago by imposing an entry visa upon inhabitants of the three other Comoran islands (Mohéli, Anjouan, Grande Comore) wishing to enter Mayotte. In this way, the isolation of the island of Mayotte, which broke away from the independent state of the Union of the Comoros twenty years previously following a unilateral decision by France which was contested by the United Nations, became a reality. (…)