The new Strategic Plan of the Gambia Immigration Department to introduce the Gambia Immigration Bill and Code of Conduct rich in training direction for officers charged with border security management is an appropriate response to the insecurity in the West African sub-region of which our country is an integral part.
Of course, the previous one has outlived its usefulness in the face of emerging and sophisticated security challenges.
The West African sub-region has evolved to become home to terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers.
A glimpse of the new policy direction as contained in the New Immigration Bill and Code of Conduct undergoing validation irises are coming to strengthen our Immigration Department.
We have consistently observed the inflow of young people in the country especially women/girls from our sub-region.
The wave of women/girls speaks volumes about the subject and how we should be primed for eventualities as a country.
Our focus in such commentaries has been how to get policymakers to consider augmenting support for the GID in the light of their constitutional mandate of securing our frontiers.
There could not have been a better request for the GID work than altering as contained in the training regimen of officers at Gambia Immigration Department (GID), in partnership with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF).
Officers, men, and women must be properly educated about the changed times in light of the new arrival to our country.
Today’s immigration officer must be one ready to take on and defeat illegal visitors who traverse our frontiers using time-tested tactics, field craft, and fire control orders.
We are grateful to our development partners, especially the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF, for their consistent support for our border security management, which lies on the bosom of the GID, of course with support from other security agencies.
Government too deserves a pat on the back for eventually appreciating the importance of arming the service.
The gathering of representatives of key stakeholders in border security management is an exercise in the right direction. The inputs of these germane agencies in appraising the strategic document cannot be emphasized.
The management of the GID did well by organizing the forum; the dividends of inputs from the stakeholders would ensure a better-primed immigration department ready for the task of warding off illegal visitors and persons whose presence on our territory won’t serve our interests.
Security is multifaceted, each department dovetailing to the other. It is for this reason that periodic engagement by the various security agencies is necessary.
The stakeholders’ engagement of a couple of days ago should constitute the beginning of a periodic feature on the diaries of the security agencies. The engagements would enable the actors at the top echelon of their services to exchange notes and strategies for the future.
We shall use this opportunity to once more call upon the government to consider providing more vehicles and related inputs such as weapons and accommodation, not forgetting communication gadgets to the GID so they can discharge their constitutional mandates to satisfaction.
