Youth Forum: Youth beg government to invest in them to curb irregular migration

Gambian youth have begged government to heavily invest in the country’s young people to curb irregular migrations following the death of more than 50 youth after their boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Mauritania, while trying to travel to Europe.

A native of Brikama, Alagie Bojang told Youth Forum that government should spend a huge amount of money on youth to prevent them from undertaking back-way to Europe in search of greener pasture.

He said youth are the future leaders of this country and government should create employment opportunities for them to discourage them from using back-way to Europe to better their living conditions.

‘‘Government should stop unnecessary spending and massively invest in young people to eradicate youth irregular migration,” he said.

He said government should also establish more skill centres in the country where youth can learn various skills to create opportunities for themselves. He also said if government establish skills centres in the country that would enable youth to acquire skills to create employment for themselves.

‘‘Without proper skills centres and job opportunities for youth, it would be very difficult to prevent them from taking the back-way adventure to Europe to improve their living conditions’’, he pointed out.

Lamin Jammeh, a youth of Kartong also said government should consider youth by supporting with incentives to discourage them on irregular migration.  ‘‘Losing more than fifty youth is a huge loss to the country and their families and government must stand firm to tackle youth irregular migration,” he pointed out.

Omar Janneh from Siffoe said government should create many job opportunities for youth with good salaries to discourage from using this terrible journey to Europe. ‘‘If youth were employed and receiving good salaries, that would discourage them from undergoing irregular migration journey to Europe,” he lamented.

He said if government continue to sideline youth; they will continue using back-way to Europe to better their living status, appealing to government to consider youth by creating more job opportunities for them to prevent from them using this dangerous journey to Europe.