By Tabora Bojang
Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has disclosed in the National Assembly yesterday that following the successful issuance of National Identity card to Gambians in Mauritania, Gabon and Togo, the government is about to dispatch another team to Guinea Bissau.
When asked by Banjul Central lawmaker Abdoulie Njai whether this scheme is a government strategy or based on country need, the Interior minister replied: “Generally, it is a government strategy. But we are doing it case by case depending on the request from a particular country. We are just from Guinea-Bissau and there was a request made. So we are going to send a team to Guinea Bissau also.”
Bakau NAM Assan Touray asked the minister to explain why the exercise is going on outside the country when Gambians within the country find it difficult to acquire ID cards. Minister Sanyang replied that the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) has a legal responsibility to serve all Gambian citizens irrespective of their geographical locations.
“Therefore, Gambians living abroad are equally entitled to national identity cards and documents which are essential for accessing consular service, legal identification and re-entry into countries that they want to go to. Secondly, many Gambians abroad suffer legal and administrative challenges without valid identification cards. Reaching our citizens to enroll them for ID cards helps prevent statelessness or legal complications for them in foreign countries. Missions for ID card enrollment abroad are often temporary and targeted, the one in the country is a continuous,” Minister Sanyang said.
He claimed that the problems encountered in the domestic issuance of ID card has largely been addressed and citizens can now apply to acquire ID cards within two weeks.
However Banjul North lawmaker Modou Lamin Bah challenged the minister’s claim that issuance of ID cards at home takes only two weeks. “I recently accompanied my sister to apply for an ID card but we were told to go and come after one month. Why is that the case when you said it takes two weeks?” Sanyang replied: “Hon Member, I think you don’t even look at my answer. I was saying that some of those problems are now resolved. Those days we had kept about 7000 ID cards that were on the line for printing. Following the Ukraine problem, we were not able to get all the cards we requested at one go. We got 25,000 and we issued those ones. So we were left with 70,000 that we did not print. That was why the problems existed. But now we have got the 50,000 that was requested and that’s why I say you can get an ID card in two weeks. In fact, if you are in Kanifing you can get it in two days. We don’t have a backlog anymore.”
The issuance of ID cards abroad has been widely criticised by the opposition and civic society members who said the act does not make sense and is an attempt by the NPP government to rig the coming elections using state institutions like the GID.
Last month, hundreds of protesters of the main opposition UDP staged a protest demanding an immediate halt to the policy.
