By: Sandally Sawo
The Gambia is increasingly gaining popularity as a country of embarkation for some Europe-bound West African migrants.
Some observers said the spike in the number of West African nationals, hightailing it to The Gambia for sea journeys to Europe is mainly due to the lax governance of the country’s territorial waters as well as the absence of a legal framework.
Currently, the country has no legal framework to deal with the seemingly intractable problem of irregular sea journeys to Europe.
Observers also said there is a lack of political will to sustainably deal with the Backway issue.
Many of our interlocutors said the conditions in The Gambia for irregular sea journeys to Europe are favorable, hence the country’s popularity among nationals of some West African countries as a launchpad.
Official statistics have shown that nationals of Guinea Conakry, Senegal, and Sierra Leone have been taking advantage of the country’s relatively lax sea governance and the absence of a legal framework to travel here to Europe irregularly.
“We will not arrest or detain anyone when it comes to irregular migration but we will deal with the problem in our own way,” the Gambia’s minister of tourism said recently as he bemoaned and acknowledged the sheer scale of the Backway problem in the country.
A senior official of the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) told this medium that the GID lacks the legal backing to combat irregular migration in a durable manner.
“Currently, we have no legal instrument to fight irregular migration and until we have the legal backing, the issue of irregular migration is here to stay,” the official said.
The GID, according to the official, is also hugely challenged, logistically to police the shores and the sea.
“We do carry out patrols of the known points of embarkation from Bakau to Barra and Ginack to Gunjur but we are limited by material, human, and financial resources to effectively carry out our mandate,” the official stated.
Be that as it may, The Gambia is increasingly becoming a popular destination for nationals of Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, and Senegal for the irregular sea journeys to Europe