By Olimatou Coker
The Gambia Immigration Department’s (GID) Migration Management Unit said it has intercepted 80 would-be migrants at Brufut on Friday including a 34-year-old Senegalese agent identified as Gora Diop.
Updating the media on the operation, Siman Low, the PRO of GID, said investigations revealed that Diop, together with an accomplice, Sheikh Mbaye, both Senegalese nationals, planned to facilitate the illegal departure of more than 80 migrants to the Canary Islands, using The Gambia as a transit point. He alleged that the duo collected over CFA3M from migrants in The Gambia and Senegal.
“For his role in recruitment, payment collection and harbouring of migrants at a compound in Brufut, Diop was cautioned and charged with attempting to commit a felony while his compatriots Mbaye remains at large, and efforts to trace him are ongoing as the case file advances to the prosecution stage,” the PRO of GID said.
He added that the Gambians caught on the planned trip have been released while those from Senegal and other counties have been repatriated to their various counties.
He also explained that 79 of them are male, 1 female and 2 minors and the nationality involved are 66 Senegalese, 12 Gambians and 2 Guineans.
