Dembo
Kambi, chairperson of the National Youth Council (NYC), has pointed out that
his office was ready to further engage government in providing adequate
programmes and services to young people in providing alternatives to irregular
migration.
Mr
Kambi made the remarks on Wednesday at the Bwiam Lodge while delivering the
opening statement of a five-day training for 25 young people drawn from all
regions of the country and institutions on counseling and guidance for
vulnerable migrant returnees.
It
was organised by the National Youth Council and funded by Youth Empowerment
Project.
According
to him, they would continue to explore the concept of youth development by
working with all stakeholders to create the enabling environment to integrate
the returnees into societies.
They
would further continue to explore every opportunity to ensure decent living
conditions and continue to strive in empowering youth with skills that provide
decent and acceptable living conditions to ensure the issue of irregular
migration was history in the country.
He
described irregular migration as suicidal and expensive, adding that the rate
of unemployment in the country was as a result of lack of unemployable skills
and required education.
“It
is our responsibility as young people to support, advise, guide and counsel
each other in making decisions that are not detrimental to our lives,” he
added.
He
pointed out that all nations depend on their young people for socio-economic
development.
According
to him, there are very successful Gambians who have not even taken a step to
the nearest neighbor Senegal, and as such, he called on young people to be
ready to help themselves, their brothers and sisters as well as the country.
Dawda
Samba, lead facilitator for the training, noted that a lot of young people are
being repatriated, hence it was important they are provided with guidance and
counseling.
“The
Gambia should not be a country that only receives its own citizens but should
be prepared to support them to reintegrate them back into our communities,” he
said.
He
called for the training of returnees to ensure they are able to go back to
communities and be of benefit to themselves as well as others who have had
similar experiences.
These
returnees, he went on, suffer great physical and emotional problems once they
return as some were jailed and physically and sexually abused.
He
said it was important they are taken care of together with their families who
spent fortunes on these children to embark on the failed journey.
