He made this revelation at a community dialogue with people of Kerewan at the Governor’s office during the nationwide tour organised by The Gambia Cyber Security Alliance (GCSA) in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the University Law Students, NAATIP, and the Gambia Immigration Department.
Inspector Jammeh further stated that these cases are handled using the SOP - Standard Operating Procedures - for handling smuggling of migrants’ cases in The Gambia. “This is a tool which is intended to facilitate the handling of cases in the Gambia in a consistent and human rights compliant manner.”
He added that GID with support from relevant stakeholders like IOM have also facilitated the return of 523 migrants including 25 females to The Gambia.
“The majority of these returnees came from Morocco, Niger, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Senegal. Morocco comprises the highest being 129 followed by Libya 96.”
Reacting to this statistics, Police Commissioner Ansumana Kinteh, of North Bank Region, said Senegambia has been the hardest hit region of countries, stating: “Community outreach like this is very helpful and impactful in aiding the curb of irregular migration.
“Majority of youth are losing their lives on this perilous journey, initiatives such as this should be continuous to sensitise people on the local level to raise awareness on the dangers of irregular migration.”
Fatou Geo Barry, Project Coordinator, UNODC Promise Project, said their organisation is committed to raising awareness on dangers of trafficking in person and smuggling of migrants.
“We recognize the importance of leaders in our communities. We believe reaching out to you people will help disseminate our information to the households which will help educate youth including women and young girls from falling prey to trafficking in person and smuggling,” she said.
President of the Gambia Cyber Security Alliance, Amadou Bah, shed light on the impact the Internet, especially the social media, has on smuggling of migrants and trafficking in person.
“These smugglers now target their victims online by presenting unrealistic offers which are usually hard to reject due to unfavorable living conditions of many. This in turn poses or exposes them to so many human rights violations.”
He advised social media users to be mindful of the information they are exposed to from these sites. He urged them to verify information and avoid falling for “these types of unrealistic offers online” as they are all methods used by these traffickers to get their victims.
