By: Nyima Sillah
The lawmaker for Janjanbureh Omar Jammeh has described the Spain-Gambia Circular Migration agreement as a “scam” orchestrated by the government, adding that the agreement is politically-polluted in the pretext of youth empowerment.
Jammeh, who is also a member of the Assembly’s Tourism, Arts & Culture, Youth and Sports Committee, emphasized that looking at the interest of laborers [farm workers or fruit collectors], there are already existing institutions that are offering training to young people in Agri-entrepreneurship, saying those institutions can integrate their trainees or graduates into the program.
“Another missed opportunity is integrating our migrant returnees from Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Algeria, et cetera to be recruited in this program and even advocate for undocumented migrants in Spain currently to be considered and issued residential permits or regularize their status. Instead, the deal seems to be meant for the children of political affiliates, ‘Yai Compins’, NPP Constituency chairmen and women and close associates,” Jammeh argued in an interview with this medium on Thursday.
He alleged that even in the corridors of the National Assembly, recruitment was conducted by one of the authorities, targeting a specific district or constituency of strictly NPP members before the circulation of the applicant forms.
NAM Jammeh stressed that looking at the target demography [25-40], it is evident that youth are the primary target. This, he said, makes it appropriate to engage the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Youth Council as key partners to help guide the process of recruitment, create transparent platforms that are accessible for the distribution of forms across the country and establish relevant structures from the grassroots to lead the process.
“I see the whole process being flawed and monopolies using it as bases to exploit our youth population and using it as a scheme to generate revenue for the State. Over thousands of young people paraded under the hot sun to obtain national documents, knowing the recruitment is limited to only 50 young people but only to hide such significant information to the public before the rolling out of the application forms,” he bemoaned.
He opined that the agreement may have good intentions but the approach and coordination are entirely not objectively conceived by The Gambia Government.
“I recalled speaking on this unfair treatment in a parliamentary debate sometime back. I hope the government can do better,” he stated.