As Gambian youths abandon the country, President Jammeh achieved one lasting legacy, his 20 years administration becoming a damnation and never ending exiling of Gambia’s future generation. In essence, Yahya Jammeh is the biggest enemy to the aspiration of young Gambians.
Kairo News was inundated with calls throughout the weekend by Gambians who crossed the Mediterranean sea to Italy. The fears of new arrivals to Italy stems from a possible arrangement between the Italian authorities and the Gambian government to send in immigration officials to identify Gambian youths and forcefully repatriate them back to Gambia.
These allegations comes on the hills of secret memos leaks to some European newspapers that, the Gambia government are among some African countries that may send in immigration officers into Italy and sign a deal to repatriate their nationals who entered Europe through the back way. The fears of the new arrivals and the long-term undocumented immigrants are that, their families used the families last savings to pay for the back way journey through the desert and into war-torn Libya, and finally braving the life and death boat trip to the coast of Italy.
The fears of the new arrivals and the long-term undocumented immigrants are that, their families used the families last savings to pay for the back way journey through the desert and into war-torn Libya, and finally braving the life and death boat trip to the coast of Italy.
The migrants are traumatised of the likelihood of forceful repatriation. With the economic and financial hardship that the Gambia government is experiencing, they will accept any offers from EU officials to repatriate the ‘back way’ immigrants. The Gambia immigration officials have made such agreement in the past in Germany, Switzerland and Spain, where they send in immigration officers who identify Gambians and those identified deported.
The sad part to the arrangement is that, the back way migrants will not get any financial compensation for being forcefully deported. The amount of money the EU puts on the table includes compensation to the youths for a smooth resettlement in their home country. However, the Gambia government always takes the money and leave the deportees empty-handed. The shock and trauma which will ensue after the potential deportation of the youth will be phenomenal. The EU officials must not run away from their humanitarian responsibilities.
The Gambia is classified as a safe country, however, the EU officials know fully well, the Gambia is a dictatorship. With the economic and political crisis taking place, youths are disenfranchised and socially excluded.
Below is a news piece on Gambian migrants in Italy:
An official from the Italian Interior Ministry has told the US based New York Times newspaper that The Gambia is the leading country of origin for thousands of migrants who have arrived in Italy so far this year.
The Gambia last year came out fifth among a host of leading countries of origin for migrants living in refugee camps in Italy.
“…during the first quarter of 2015, a relatively slow period with just 10,165 arrivals — The Gambia was the leading country of origin, accounting for 1,413 of the migrants,” the New York Times reported.
“Migration statistics offer a hint of the shift. More than 170,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy by sea last year; Syrians and Eritreans were the two largest groups among them, accounting for more than 76,000 people, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry. Gambians ranked a distant fifth.”
Reports said authorities have not published figures for April yet, but humanitarian and migration groups confirm that majority of the arriving migrants came originally from sub-Saharan African countries.
“We see that even people who had originally moved to Libya with the intention to remain there — including both refugees and migrants — have now decided to flee toward Europe, even though it means risking their lives in a very dangerous journey at sea,” Matteo de Bellis, the Italy representative for Amnesty International, said in an email to New York Times.
Bruce Leimsidor, an expert on Europe’s asylum system, said a certain amount of skepticism should be applied, because migrants may make such claims in the hope that it will help their requests for asylum in Europe.
Mohammed Njie, a 31-year old Gambian said he left the country seven months ago after a dispute with his boss over unpaid wages. He made his way to Libya, hoping to send money back to his parents and two children, following in the footsteps of older generations of Gambians who worked in Libya and returned home with nest eggs.
“They could buy homes, buy a car,” he said. “They could live a better life.”
Njie and other African migrants at the detention centre said there was rampant abuse in Libya. He said the construction bosses had stopped paying wages to labourers, and other men who did get their pay said they were preyed upon by criminal gangs, including marauding teenagers who robbed people at gunpoint.
“I want to work,” said Mr Njie, the Gambian. “I left my family behind, so I want to work. And I want to find peace of mind.”
Meanwhile, a Gambian girl who has experienced the horrors of the Mediterranean Sea voyage has penned a letter begging migrants not to attempt the sea crossing that she survived, but which killed her family and hundreds of others in a recent string of tragedies.
“Many people have died, my best friends and my sisters and my brothers have died in the wave to come to Italy,” wrote the 12-year-old girl in a letter released last Wednesday.
“What I can say is only to tell you people who want to come don’t come please, my brothers and sisters, because (it) is hard to say goodbye,” added the girl, who asked for the letter be made public.
The child arrived April 14 in Reggio de Calabria in southern Italy with the 150 survivors of a shipwreck which is thought to have killed 400 migrants.
Source: Standard
Ends
Europe is now a union but it’s different member states or countries are far different when it comes to respecting human life. Switzerland does that, Germany once upon a time did that and Italy is definitely doing that now; Collaborate with Gambian authorities in the repartriation of the Gambia dissidents.
The U.S, the U.K, Canada, Scandanavia, Holland and Germany are probably the only save havens for Gambians in the diaspora. One cannot rule out the fact some Europeans countries are part players in most of African countries’ dictatorships.