Addressing members of Operation No Back Way to Europe at his office recently, the minister said: “Before, it was the youth who were aspiring to go to Europe through the back way. But recently the trend we have seen is that it is our parents who instead are forcing most of these youths to take this back way or illegal route. They are the ones providing them with the funds that they use to travel. And most of the time it is the same parents who would say to their sons and daughters, ‘look at so-and-so’s daughter or son, he or she has done ABC and you are here doing nothing’. And it gets to a point where they will have to sell the last cattle or the last compound that they have in order to provide monies for these people to embark on these illegal and dangerous journey to Europe.
“Women have always been making these dangerous journeys but it used to be those from other parts of Africa. But recently we have seen Gambian women embarking on these dangerous journeys. It has been happening and it needs to be handled now otherwise it will escalate. These are very hard journeys and women cannot endure them. The reason why I said we should involve the Supreme Islamic Council is because human beings listen to three categories of people; those in government, religious and traditional leaders. This is why we thought engaging the traditional and religious leaders can go a long way in helping address this menace of illegal migration,” Minister Badjie said.
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