By Tabora Bojang
The Gambia Immigration Department is proposing in the new Immigration Bill for the establishment of a special border patrol unit which will bear arms for the purpose of carrying high risk operations across sea and land borders.
The bill is currently before the Ministry of Justice for consideration.
GID Director General Ebrima Mboob said transnational organised crimes, smuggling and trafficking in persons have been gaining momentum with perpetrators increasingly going armed and resisting law enforcement hence the need for robust enforcement.
He explained that in the recent months, immigration officers have been facing repeated attacks from smugglers and traffickers which in some cases led to injuries. According to him, the GID has created a new specialised border patrol unit with 100 immigration officers trained on arms drill through Gambia Armed Forces who are going to be deployed to hotspots like Tanji and Barra.
“But under the current legislation, they cannot carry weapons because the law does not provide for that but the Immigration Bill that is currently in process will make provisions for that and if approved our border patrol officers will be armed,” Mboob said. He said there can also be inter-agency collaboration where immigration officers will work with other security agencies across land, air and sea borders.
He recounted an instance where an immigration officer got his leg broken in Panchang following an attack from across the border.
GID Spokesperson Siman Lowe also added his voice to the need for the border patrol units to be armed. He said in the past months, several attacks were carried out against immigration officers, which called for robust law enforcement capabilities to curb the situation. “We have resistance from some of these smugglers and some of them have weapons. In Kartong, our team was supposed to intercept a boat but there was a guy onboard armed with a rifle, so our officers had to retreat and call the Navy but before the Navy arrived the boat left. We also intercepted a smuggler who had a pistol in his bag in one of the boats. There was another case around Gunjur where migrants resisted to be intercepted because they had knives and weapons and had to escape.”
