By: Nyima Sillah
Honorable Foday N.M Drammeh, former National Assembly Member for Tumana Constituency has tasked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide the total number of Gambians in deportation camps set to be deported back to the country.
In an exclusive interview with this reporter, he noted that this is the question the Foreign Affairs Minister has been avoiding for the past five years, even when he was in parliament.
Drammeh said that considering the current situation of the country, “if the number of deportees is known, the reason for their deportation and where they are coming from, they could engage the government to at least come up with tangible solutions to reintegrate them in the societies.”
“Deportation issues have a lot of implications on us looking at the fragile security of our country. It is a threat to the security of the country. If the government should just allow people to come back home without putting proper ways to reintegrate them into our society, it is worrisome,” he warned while suggesting for the summoning of the Ministry before the National Assembly for clarification.
“The Ministry should explain if the Government gets into any agreement with any other country to deport its nationals, if yes, then they should provide the parliament with the documents for parliament to know what the documents entail.
Speaking on illegal migrants, he asked what level of sensitization was put in place by the government and its partners to discourage young Gambians from embarking on illegal migration and what other plans were put in place to help those returnees considering the current economic and unemployment rate among the youth.