(JollofNews) – Gambia’s Immigration Chief Buba Sanyang has defended the removal of ‘homeless’ Senegalese children from the tiny West African nation.
“Fifty seven youngters ranging in age from 11 to 16 years were taken to the border with Senegal,” Buba Sanyang told this reporter in an exclusive interview.
He said the move is part of an operation launched by a joint task force, led by the police, geared towards maintaining law and order in the country.
Sanyang said the teanagers were found living outside in filthy conditions. They were recovered by security forces, and a decision was taken to reunite them with their familles,” he said.
He said there are other minors who are in police custody awaiting to be deported to their respective countries.
Sanyang went further to emphasize they already received feedback from the Senegalese immigration that the kids are happy to get back home.
Senegal played a key role in helping Gambia to overcome the post-electoral crisis provoked by Yahya Jammeh’s U-turn in the 2016 presidential elections.
The ECOMIG forces include soldiers from Senegal military forces and have been assisting the country’s security forces to ensure that peace continues to prevail in Gambia.
23 August 2017
The Senegambia is fighting the menace of street children. Street children are found to be easy prey for the human and drug traffickers, terrorists and other criminals. Authorities should find them and re-unite them with their parents or guardians within or outside the Gambia. This is not an easy task, in Europe, more than ten thousand unaccompanied Syrian children went missing, and they could end up in terribly unwanted conditions. I hope the Senegalese Children sent back home were handed over to the counterpart Senegalese immigration forces to re-unite them with their parents and guardians. If they were Gambians, they would be sent to their parents and guardians. Unaccompanied children, whose parents and guardians cannot be located within or outside the Gambia, can be hosted by NGOs and some government agencies. I believe this is what the authorities in Senegambia are practicing to protect the children against being ended up in unwanted conditions.
Mr Bourne; I recognise Gambian benevolence of thinking and action in your honest and revealing words. Arrest, search and detention, and wholesale transportation of minors is despicable. Your thoughts are also full of unanswered questions by the authorities. If parents are involved, then why was there no alert or missing person report filed through the Senegalese authorities ? Why dump the children at the border with Casamance and not directly to Senegal? Why so many as 57 in one assignment ? This was not a humanitarian action, done through known protocol and procedure. This was a human clearing exercise, untaken by “orders” and without the usual collaboration with known children’s rights organisations such as Save The Children and The International Red Cross.
” The Children Catchers”
Mr Sillah; You speak wisely but within your words, you describe what should be the case and not what was the case. It would be helpful to hear the children’s story. There life’s experience contribution could help to understand the universal experience of all the children and whether there was an escape from social and family pressures or they were just abandoned and forced to migrate for financial and life support reasons.
If there is a universal trend, this would be an opportunity for the authorities to gain knowledge and form an effective protection policy. The Gambian authorities have lost an opportunity. It would appear that expediency has over ridden attention to the children’s human rights.
Bourne: I think you said it all. I cannot add anything.
Gambians,Bissau Guineans, Malians childrens are still in the streets or Dakar. You have never heard of any deportation. It’s embarrasing !
How a civil servant can act this way without the high authorities order or permit
?