By Yunus S Saliu
The Ministry of Information, Communication and Infrastructure, Friday, 4th June, 2021 received donated IT and Communication equipments worth of US116,000.00 from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – The Gambia.
The items donated by IOM Gambia office to the MOICI included Printers; Laptops; Voice Recorders; Internet Data Cards; Projectors and Accessories; Flash Drives; tablets; Digital Cameras; Cordless Mic and Camera Stands (Tripods) and Editing Software (ADOBE) and each carton of the donated equipments contains 30 items.
Also, the items are meant for the use of government communication and information officers posted in different ministries to help strengthening their skills, knowledge and communications on Migration in The Gambia; one of the component of the project gears towards building the capacities of government stakeholders on migration.
Prior the presentation, Honorable Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Information, Communication and Infrastructure (MOICI), on behalf of government of The Gambia, thanked the IOM Gambia office for the generosity in strengthening government efforts to effectively communicate on migration.
“This would not have come at a better time when The Gambia is still over the years having rapid increase in the number of young people leaving this country through what we called the ‘backway syndrome’ to reach the shore of the Europe,” Honorable Sallah disclosed.
He dilated on very difficult circumstances these illegal migrants, as they somehow became victims of human trafficking, while Sahara desert became the graveyard for lots of young people who could not make it to Mediterranean countries. “And even some of those who are able to make it to Libya and other places, majority of them are still without papers and they are finding it extremely difficult to stay in those countries,” he noted.
He expressed that government of The Gambia recognized the need to include everybody in its inclusive development programs and decided to partner with the office of the International Organization for Migration in The Gambia to enhance their collaboration “to ensure that we give adequate information to the young people about the dangers associated with unplanned migration which people called illegal migration.”
Through this project and its other components, the Minister emphasized among other things that the component is to strengthen the communication initiative as part of the overall migration governance system in The Gambia.
Therefore, “we are happy that IOM answered to our call on this very important initiative, we assured The Gambia people that the government is committed to addressing the root cause of illegal migration in The Gambia to provide the necessary conducive environment for our young people to stay and work in our Gambia to contribute meaningful to the overall economy development of the country.”
Miko Alazas, Media and Communication Officer of IOM Gambia Office in brief, reflected on the new began 15-month long training program on migration communication organized by the MOICI in partnership with the IOM Gambia Office for all the communication and information officers in the government ministries.
He added that the donated equipments will help in building capacity and skills of the country’s information and communication staffs of the government of The Gambia.