By Omar Bah
But what is clear is that there are much more people that need to be returned and the European Union wants to be a place of welcoming asylum seekers and migrants who are legally arriving into the country. And in order to do that and have member states and citizens in Europe willing to accept refugees and regular migrants, we need to be strict with the irregular ones. The European Commission had just presented a new policy on returns last week. It is now being discussed by the member states and the European Parliament and that would facilitate and clear a bit the processes and the procedures on the returns.
The goal is to have a migration that is chosen. We need to get to the point that a migrant chooses to go, not forced.
And in order to do that, the European Union has an incredible amount of investment to fight the root causes of migration.
We want to give opportunities to people because most people do not move because they want to move, they are forced to move. So tackling the root causes of migration is important and we all need to work on it, because when people are forced to leave they leave in any possible way and that usually throws migrants into the hands of traffickers and smugglers. That is when the trouble starts and eventually many people lose their lives in the sea. This is a tragedy that needs to be prevented. We are working with The Gambia and our colleagues from Member States – Germany and Spain – to support The Gambian authorities in preventing smuggling and trafficking. Last year, we had a drop of 50 percent in terms of the number of people leaving and I think this is one aspect that needs to continue because we need to prevent people from dying.
That brings me to another important aspect of it, which is the legal path and skills development. The European Union population is characterised by a population decline. I am not unveiling any secret, we are getting old. We need people to work in Europe because our social security system is not going to be sustainable and survive. Therefore, we need skilled people reaching Europe legally to be able to develop there, which will benefit both Europe and the migrant as well as his/her home country with the remittances and the acquired skills. And I think Spain has led the way with a memorandum of understanding signed and we are working on trying to see other countries to increase the legal part.
We are also working with The Gambia in the areas of protection of migrants. This focuses on Gambian migrants, returnees and other migrants in the country because The Gambia also applies a policy of returns for people who are illegally living in the country. But again, this is international law. It is what it has to be and it has to be done. But protecting migrants is very important.
We know the debate on returns is always complex but there is a constant dialogue between the EU and The Gambia.
We have recently approved a project worth over 15 million Euros (approx. 1.2 billion Dalasi) devoted to addressing trafficking, smuggling, employability of people, legal path, protection of migrants, psychosocial support of people returning, which is a very important part of the whole process because coming back is not easy.
Again, for me, the main goal is to have a migration that is chosen, regulated and one that has a good impact and is sustainable. But the backlog of people that have to return needs to be managed and it has to continue but we are not talking about massive exercises, we are talking about a figure that is acceptable and manageable with clear support both at arrival and integration. And I think it is important that people are respected and treated well.
Can you tell us, how many Gambians are currently placed on deportation order in Europe and when are they going to be deported?
We are talking about over 10,000 Gambians but when they will be returned depends because they need papers to return. We are never talking about more than several hundreds of citizens returning each year at the most. I am talking about non-voluntary returns which require constant dialogue with the government.
But the fact that there are less people leaving, it helps because that means the backlog is not enormously increasing.
Again, we are sure that with the existing steady dialogue and engagement from both sides there will be understanding. The EU is aware that remittances are a very important part of the budget for the country.
Therefore, we need to work on legally regulated migration.
There have been serious concerns about the IOM reintegration programme. Is the Embassy considering a review of the programme?
The European Union follows very much and monitors the way that our programmes are being implemented.
From time to time, there may be incidents that happen that we are not immediately aware of, but whenever we have information about it, we take the adequate measures to follow up, monitor, evaluate and take the decisions that need to be taken afterwards. This is something that we do with all our cooperation. Not only on migration but this is a clear commitment of the European Union because the investments that we do outside come from the European taxpayers. We have a clear obligation of accountability towards them so we do follow how the projects are implemented and there are internal mechanisms from internal audits and the office Investigating Financial fraud at the European Court of Auditors. Then all the internal mechanisms in the country and externally at the European Union level are used to remedy all kinds of abuses that we come across.
The European Union has without a doubt expended a lot of resources into Gambia’s reform process. Is the EU satisfied with the progress of the Security Sector Reform? Are you happy that Ecomig is still here?
I would not want to describe it based on the context of happiness or not being happy. As I said at the beginning, all transitions take time. And we all, you as Gambians, the government and all the competent authorities would have liked to see it quicker and better but transitions are not that linear.
The European Union has supported the Security Sector Reform as an important reform of the country but it needs time to be implemented in the best possible sustainable way. Sometimes quick is not the best way to go. You rather stay long on it.
I think the Ecomig presence in the country is something to be negotiated between the government and Ecowas.
We did finance their accommodation for a while but we are not financing it anymore. We believe that those are considerations and negotiations at the country and government level. The government needs to negotiate and agree with Ecowas on how long the Ecomig forces can stay here.
The European Union would not be interfering. We are conscious of the criticism of the SSR being slow and we are monitoring, evaluating, seeing and accompanying everything that is being done but I think I would be very clear in saying sometimes speed is not the best solution for a sustainable result.
How does the European Union respond to the rejection of Diaspora voting?
I think the first important thing that needs to be underlined is that The Gambia has gone through a whole circle of elections that have been successful. When I say successful I am referring to the process. We have actively observed some of those elections and come up with recommendations on how to better improve the system to make it international standards. Part of these recommendations is the voter register which is always an issue.
Apart from that we are glad that the Constitution and the Elections Bill are being discussed. We trust that the Constitutional Clauses and the Supreme Court decision that all Gambians at the age of eighteen and above have the right to vote is going to be implemented. We understand that at the moment there is a debate on the decision that was taken on the difficulties of the technicalities of it. I hope that these technicalities are going to be overcome and that the decision of the court will be implemented.
Let’s discuss the recent decision by the United States to cut 80 percent of its international support. In these difficult moments, can The Gambia rely on Europe?
I think the cancellation of over 80 percent of US international support is having a clear impact on the lives of people around the world. We as the European Union are closely monitoring the impact of this decision. We are looking at the sectors that would be hit the hardest or more impacted and see whether we could find solutions.
However, we believe that a world order that is based on rules where everybody has the commitment for development is important and should be everybody’s responsibility. We all need to show full responsibility and leadership.
We believe that solutions would need to be found by the international community because the European Union does not have the capability of actually substituting this gap.
But Europe is going to remain as a reliable partner.
We will continue to be closer to The Gambia. We will continue supporting its democratic transition and development trajectory. The world has changed dramatically in the last few years. We need to adapt. We need to learn. We need to be conscious of what can be and cannot be done. We need to also understand working together is the only way of addressing most of the current challenges.
Thank you, Madam Ambassador
You are welcome.
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