The Gambia Refugees Association Europe Branch (GRA Europe Branch) has learnt with shock, the discriminatory and insensitive remarks made by Mayor Boris Erasmus Palmer of Tübingen City in Baden-Württemberg over the killing of a 23-year-old Gambian refugee Basiru Jallow, widely known as B-Boy in Tübingen City.
Basiru Jallow was stabbed to death in Tübingen city by an unidentified individual last week. Since then, police in Tübingen have started investigations into his death but full details of the investigations are yet to be known.
However, the GRA Europe Branch has learned with shock, the insensitive remarks made by Mayor Boris Erasmus Palmer of Tübingen city who wrote on his Facebook page the following comment: “According to police, the man killed with a knife was 23-year-old Gambian. The perpetrator is on the loose in the heart of the city on the bright side of day. The crime scene is right where I took this picture; it is the site of the open drug scene mostly run by refugees from The Gambia. I have always urged the police to fight them as hard as possible, but it’s very difficult for refugees. Petty crime is not enough for deportation. The financial gain is so great that arrests and a few days in jail have been calculated, and often the young men have to send the money home. They get sent off for this.”
We strongly condemn such discriminatory remarks by Mayor Boris Palmer and we urge him to apologize to Gambians immediately. We don’t expect such remarks to come from an authority in his capacity and it is very disheartening that he singled out only Gambians as refugees. Official statistics have shown that many Gambians are employed and paying taxes, while some are going to school.
Besides, a large number of Gambians working in Germany have been recognized to be hard-working migrants as evident in a number of newspaper publications where employers appeal to the authorities to give chance to their Gambian employees to get a residence permit to be able to work in their companies.
The GRA Europe Branch is also calling on the German authorities to condemn Mayor Boris Palmer’s discriminatory remarks against Gambians, as discrimination is an offence under German Laws.
We hope that the police will speed up their investigation and ensure that the late Basiru Jallow’s killer faces the full force of the law. We need justice for Basiru Jallow.
The GRA Europe Branch, therefore, calls on the Government of the Gambia to engage the German government to ensure justice for Basiru Jallow and to condemn Mayor Boris Palmer’s remarks.
Signed
Assan Sallah
Chairman, GRA Europe Branch
