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GID announces new scheme for ID, residential cards

Feb 5, 2020, 1:09 PM | Article By: Fatou Dem

Gambia Immigration Department (GID) last week announced a new scheme for national Identification cards and new financial costing of residential cards.

Following the change of government in 2016, the government of Adama Barrow put an embargo on the issuing of the old ID cards and in 2018, SEMPLEX Company was contracted to produce the new biometric ID cards, passport and other national identification documents.

Olimatou Jammeh, Gambia Immigration Department Commissioner for documentation said as part of the contract, SEMPLEX is also assigned with the printing of residential permits, alien cards and non-Gambian ID cards.

“GID has rolled out new financial costing for certain resident permits such as resident permit A- at D1, 850, resident permit B- ECOWAS D1, 850, resident permit B-NON-ECOWAS D3, 100, alien card D1, 600 and non-Gambian ID card  which is normally paid by Senegalese is D650.”

She said in January 2018, the immigration department issued 138,764 of national Identification cards in which 137 applicants were rejected because they were not qualified Gambians and in 2019, 1, 916 applicants were referred to bring more supporting documents to be able to secure a national identification card.

According to her, thirty-two thousand, one hundred and twenty-seven passport readable machines were issued to the immigration by Gambians in the Diaspora out of which 271 were referrals and the number of biometric passports issued was 30, 882 and 152 were referral and 10 rejected.

“The Immigration has prosecuted 12 cases due to false documents, including six Sierra Leoneans, one Guinean and 5 Gambians,” she said.

Commissioner Jammeh further explained that twenty-four Gambians who fraudulently obtained Gambian documents, were made to pay resident permits and forty other nationals who claimed to be Senegalese in order to evade payment of resident permits.

According to her, the immigration department is facing challenges of escorts and false declaration by Gambians and fictitious birth certificates.