By: Saidou Baldeh
The international organization for migration (IOM) in partnership with the Immigrations and Border management Authorities of the Gambia and Senegal over the recently held joint two days cross-border cultural activities at the Giboro Koto border post.
The forum was held under the framework of the project “enhancing collective capacity for managing borders and for protecting border communities: The Gambia and Senegal” and was funded by the government of Japan.
The IOM program officer Stephen Otien Matete said migration of border management program has been going on for weeks and its main objective is to enhance the capacity of border communities and official in the targeted regions in their quest to manage migration.
“This is the first of its kind for this region and the program is funded by the government of Japan. It has been going on since March of last year. The project is also expected to strengthen the capacity of communities and security officials around the borders to manage the effects of migration,” he said.
The communities, he added, if well trained will serve as integral sources of valuable information that can be very beneficial for the border official, saying there perspective is to complement the effort of the Gambia Government.
The vice chairperson of the Giboro Koto VDC Momodou Jallow said the importance of the cultural activities cannot be overemphasized, saying it will provide awareness to the communities and as well create a mutual understand between them and the securities stationed at the borders.
“It will also create an environment where the communities of Giboro and Seleti will come together and work as a unified force towards achieving their dreams of curbing migration,” he added.
Menawhile, the PRO Gambia immigration department Mamading Dibba Said the program is very important for the immigration official as the first respondents whenever the issues of migration comes up.
“The program will help the two communities, the immigration and customs officials in managing their day to day affairs with the communities without any difficulties. We have lot of challenges giving the fact that the two countries shared borders in almost all corners. We are running day and night just to ensure that we maintain peaceful co-existence in the two countries,” he added.