Our
compatriots have continued to suffer serious consequences of the back-way
mission to Europe.
While
some of our youths, who have managed to brave the Mediterranean to get to
Europe, have been met with harsh conditions in countries like Italy and Spain,
others keep losing their lives on the coast of Libya and the Mediterranean.
Yet
others have also continued to face the harsh penalty of human smuggling to
Europe through the Mediterranean Sea.
One
of our young female football players who is said to have lost her life a few
days ago on the coast of Libya – an incident that took about 300 youthful
lives, was the focus of news yesterday on BCC Focus on Africa.
And
here again is a report from our Italy correspondent that alleged Gambian human
smugglers have been jailed in Italy. “More than 32 migrants, the majority of
them Gambians and Senegalese, have been arrested and sent directly to prison by
the Italian police force this year,” our correspondent said, quoting the
Italian Interior Ministry.
They
are being jailed for allegedly involving in human smuggling in the
Mediterranean.
In
its report on arrivals of migrants in Italy in the first weeks of 2016; the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated that arrivals “have come
mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria and The Gambia”.
“Nigerians
and Gambians accounted for around one-third of the 5,273 migrants who arrived
in Italy during January 2016,” the report stated.
It
added that The Gambia is one the countries in Africa where many immigrants are
leaving for Europe.
We
are seriously concerned and worried about this trend, which seemed unabated,
and has continued to take the lives of our young ones, especially.
This
desperate situation definitely needs serious and desperate solutions. And we as
a nation need to keep the fight relentlessly, by making The Gambia a better
option to places like Italy and Spain.
“Much
of the miserable situations we are faced with today in Africa are perpetuated
by abject poverty…”
The
Point
