By Binta Jaiteh
National Youth Parliament has engaged migrant returnees on a five-day counselling and guidance programme, held at Shelly’s Resort Bijilo Clinic.
Allagie Jarju, Executive Director of National Youth Council said: “whatever class of returnees this people fall into reintegrating them successfully in the society is our aim and the reintegration monetary aspect is the most important. We will support them to have a career either in business or other jobs noting that in his view the most important aspect is the counselling and guidance bid because having confidence and stable mind is the solution.”
According to him, as a council they will continue to give the maximum support to the returnees because that is why I’m paid for the service. I urge the participants to share their experiences for other people to speak up, and have the courage to leave in the society. Life is about learning on daily basis and improve but after ten years of learning without improvement then something is wrong as a country or society.
Fatoumatta Sanneh, moderator also announced that the programme was supported by UNFPA for the returnees and it is crucial, as the National Youth Parliament deemed it necessary to organize this forum. This is because “we believe the society has been discriminating the returnees for years,” she claimed.
“The fact that you are returnees, does not mean that you are different from others, we will provide you with counselling, protect and guide you to know how to protect your space as an individual’’ she said
Ndegen Jobe, deputy speaker explained that the programme aimed to share ideas at the training to help each other in the society, it is not a shameful act that you are returnees.
“I am a survivor of human trafficking in 2014, an immigration officer I was promised a job in Egypt. I was an active person and I also lost my dad maybe that was the reason the person uses to get advantage of my current devastating situation.
“Trafficking is always done by someone you know and I began to suspect that it wasn’t a right place for me, it was surprising that I will be working as a maid and even the worst part of it is that I never did that kind of job here in the Gambia,” he explained.
But “I had to cope with the situation to build a new life in Egypt for the main time I had no one to talk to at that moment so I struggled to get back home. When you also come a lot of discrimination and stigmatization from the society, they wouldn’t want to know what the real story is, I believe that is destiny. My advice to my fellow returnees is that let them not sit and believe they are failures if those dreams are not fulfilled there is still chance.”
