Around the globe, youth play a crucial role in shaping societies and also act like agents of social change, economic development and progress.
In the foregoing, the government and development partners should do more to create an enabling environment for young people to stay and make decent living right here. Creating enabling space would help harness and unleash the potentials of these youth and contribute meaningfully to national development.
Certainly, this is lacking, then youth would resort to some activities that leaves much to be desired. From surge in crime and venturing into the 'back-way' are all exacerbated by the fact that they lack hope in the in the country.
In the past years, the country has lost a good number of its young people on this back-way and there is no end in sight to this issue.
It is disheartening to learn on news on Thursday’s edition of The Point, that The Gambia Immigration Department (GID) has confirmed that a boat carrying dozens of Gambians and Senegalese migrants left The Gambia on Tuesday heading for Europe.
This migrant boat was said to have departed from Bakau on 24 September 2024. In the past few weeks, Senegambia is mourning the tragic loss of its citizens on this dangerous sea route to find better live in Europe.
Some were lucky to make it but many also died on the journey. However, truth must be told. The Europe that most of these youths are yearning and dying to migrate to is not opening its doors to people especially from Africans.
Upon arrival on European shores, some of these migrants are subjected to degrading unhuman conditions and other right abuses.
Thus, government and development partners ought to intensify their effort to create more job opportunities and skills training for the teeming youth who graduate every year. Every year, thousands of young people are graduating, who find it difficult to secure job placement. This, in fact is the more reason, many are taking their perilous sea journey in search of better opportunities in the West.
No country is against migration or stopping its people to travel. But let it be in line with laws.
Also, government needs to rethink and come up with sound policies and youth friendly initiatives to encourage and better the lives of its citizens. The Smiling Coast with its vast resources has what it takes to make the country better for all us, rather than sit back and see our youth perish in the vast Sahara and in the Mediterranean Sea.