By Buba Gagigo
Sulayman Camara, the Secretary of Communication and Media for the National People’s Party, has claimed that President Barrow’s government has no authority to stop the ongoing deportation of Gambians from the European Union.
“These countries have their laws for example, in England, where I have stayed and I know. There are certain criminal offenses when you do those things, if you’re a foreigner, at the end of your prison time they will deport you straight, obviously they deport you,” he told Kerr Fatou.
The NPP media officer also stated that President Barrow’s government has experienced significant hardship as a result of its refusal to accept deportation.
“We also know that the government has suffered a lot by insisting not to accept our deportees or to prepare their documents to come. That’s why even some of the hierarchy of government officials are denied visas to visit some countries in the European Union. So is a very terrible situation to be honest. But In this case, the government is quite powerless. This is just like you went to somebody else father’s compound, and they ask you to leave what can your dad do about that? So it’s very difficult.
“No! we don’t want our young people to be deported, we know they risked their lives to go out and help their families to alleviate poverty on the family. So Obviously they are on a very noble course but as I said, what can government do about that? Not only the Gambian government, what can African governments do about that, especially the developing ones?” he asked.
Mr. Camara said that the European countries that are deporting Gambian citizens are development partners to the Gambia. However, he insisted that the government cannot do anything if these countries want to deport people from their countries.
“These are our development partners, if they said look, we don’t want XYZ in our country, what can we do? Is not that everyone is deported, there are some people who are still there and they were lucky, they got papers, they’re working, and they’re helping their families. We want that to happen to every individual but unfortunately, that might not be possible. So obviously, is a very, very difficult situation. Countries have their laws, some if you enter into their countries illegally there is a penalty for that. Some of them if you are found doing some illegal activities that might have a negative impact on your asylum application,” he said.
Yahya Sonko, a German-based migration activist, last week confirmed that 35 Gambians were deported from Europe to the Gambia. According to the migration activist, the aim of the European Union is to deport one hundred (100) Gambians in July alone.