By: Kemo Kanyi
Lamin Dampha, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Regional Integration and Employment has revealed that the government of The Gambia has written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to carry out investigations into the alleged payments made to agencies or individuals with regards to Gambia-Spain Labour Agreement.
Dampha maintained that the application is free of charge for all applicants and called on anyone, who has evidence to the contrary, to present it to his ministry or the police in order to bring the perpetrators to book.
‘’We are inviting the general public, especially those with evidence to share. We have already written to the IGP about this and the police are currently investigating these cases. Those with evidence can share with us or the police so that the culprits can be brought to book. The Ministry is sharing whatever evidence we have with the police and we are in close contact with them to speed up the investigations because that is very important for us to regain the public confidence,’’ PS Dampha told Coffee Time with Peter Gomez on Tuesday.
He added that the government has yet to start the recruitment of workers for the Gambia-Spain Labour Agreement, also reaffirming that the government has not given license to any agencies to recruit workers under this specific agreement.
‘’What we have done so far is try to complete the legal process. The Cabinet endorsed the agreement, presented it to the National Assembly and it was ratified. Now, we are just waiting for the instrument to share with the government of Spain. We have not licensed any single recruitment agency to recruit workers for Spain. This agreement is different from that of Saudi and the United Arab Emirates because this is mainly going to be implemented by the government and no private individual will be involved,’’ stated PS Dampha.
He explained that the government’s current interactions with the government of Spain is mainly in the agricultural sector. ‘’Those that will be going there will be working in the agricultural sector. They are called seasonal workers. They will be there during the harvesting for a period of six months and come back after the harvesting. The workers will be called back when another harvesting period starts. This will continue up to a time when they will be given residence to stay with their family.’’
PS Dampha further mentioned that the government of The Gambia is still waiting for the Spain to share the conditions and criteria that the country must fulfil. He added that the government is also waiting on their farming community to know how many job vacancies are available for Gambians youth.
He revealed that the final selection of workers will be jointly done by his ministry and the equivalent ministry of Spain and the employers.
