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.
