By Olimattou Coker
A senior immigration officer has told campaigners against gender-based violence that some parents fake the ages of their girl children to obtain them ID cards so they can send them into marriage to beat the law banning underage marriage.
In The Gambia, marriage under 18 is illegal whereas only citizens of 18 and above can acquire an ID card.
“So, to avoid conflict with the law, parents would do everything to get ID cards for their daughters so that they would appear to be of marriage age,” Modou Bah, the deputy head of immigration in Upper River Region, told a nationwide caravan campaign and advocacy meetings on citizens’ participation in ending FGM and other SGBV.
Bah further explained that instead of protecting their daughters, parents themselves are the ones trying all efforts to make sure that their children get an ID to get into early marriage.
“This is one of the new problems we are currently facing at our level,” he said.
Talking about enforcing the FGM law, Bah said there is a law that discourages parents from smuggling a child to another country for cutting and anyone found doing so will be in a lot of trouble. “We are making all this difficult to safeguard our children from harmful practices of FGM and others,” he told the meeting.
Another speaker, Modou Lamin Carew, senior accountant at Basse Area Council, advised women to be very vigilant when it comes to their children.
“Some parents send their children on errand at any time or hours of the night without thinking of the risks attached to it”,’ he warned.
Marima Cham, social welfare assistant in URR, said people must be bold to report issues of FGM and other gender-based violence cases to save the girl child and expose perpetrators in our society.
Jambang Balejo, a survivor of early marriage, said she got married at the age 15 and had to endure serious complications during labor and after delivery.
“I promised myself that none of my children will go through what I went through. Child marriage is harmful”, she said.
She added that she made sure that all her girl children are well educated before being married and they are currently working.
The caravan was organised by Gender Platform whose objective is to safeguard the wellbeing of women and girls.
The new partnership with communities and authorities across the country helps enhance the protection of women’s rights in The Gambia, a demographic constituting over 51% of the population.
