Gov’t urged to support migrants in national budget

By Nyima Sillah
The government has been urged to support the nation’s migrants and returnees in its national budget in order to help them start up their lives in the country again.
Speaking at two days multi-stakeholder dialogue organised by the Youth Against Irregular Migration held at KMC Hall, Etienne Micallef, Program Manager, International Organisation for Migrants (IOM), disclosed that they have gone a long way since 2017 but more needs to be done.
“We all need to advocate, if there is no money and there are no resources then there can be no support. Is there a budget line for the national fund for reintegration, does the ministry of interior and other ministries wards under migration have a specific budget to provide reintegration assistance to returnees, is reintegration in the national development plans, the answer is no,” he added.
He said the national development plan that was developed was at a time all these things were new. Adding that this is no criticism to the government but now that the Gambia is moving forward, migration, return, and reintegration should be a midstream in the work of the government.
“I know that this is also a call for international organisations to continue supporting the Gambia. We know that the Gambia is a low-income country compared to other countries, still authorities need to make sure that there is a specific budget to provide these services to returnees,” he said.
According to him, the international organisation for migrants has supported around six thousand six hundred returnees until December 2021 from January 2017.
Meanwhile, he went on to say in 2019 with the NHRC there were committee for the prosecution of torture in Africa Commission on Human and Peoples right that held a meeting in the Gambia to talk about freedom of torture and other ill treatment of migrants including returnees.
“This is something that we should all be working towards, the African Union already has structures and commissions and charters in place to provide necessary protections for migrants and returnees, we need to work together to make sure that mechanisms are reinforced,” he said.