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City of Banjul
Monday, February 17, 2025
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The back-way is killing our youth

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A report on irregular migration in the year 2024 has revealed frightening figures of young people who lost their lives trying to reach Europe through the back-way. According to a report by Mr Ebrima Drammeh, a Gambian migrant activist, more than 1600 Gambians died on the back-way in year 2024.

The data collected during this time shows that out of the 1603 people who have died, 1557 are said to have perished at sea while 46 died on land. These figures are frightening as even the loss of one life is one too many. These figures send a very damning picture of the country.

The report shows that many of these perished at seas aboard boats which left from Gambian shores while others left from Senegal and other countries. This means that Gambian young people are doing everything possible to find a way to leave their country in order to reach Europe.

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More than five times that figure is reported to have reached Spain and other parts of Europe and are now there looking for greener pastures. Of course, the majority of these are young people who could have contributed immensely to the development of the country.

This is a call to the Gambia government to do everything possible to stem to flow of migration in order to save the lives of young people who wish to make something of themselves. This calls for an inter-departmental cooperation and indeed all hands on deck to solve the problem.

Among the questions such an effort should find an answer to is this: why is it that the young people are so desperate to leave the country that they are willing to risk their lives to achieve it? Without this information and ways to resolve the problem, it seems impossible to stop the scourge.

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Government should work on giving skills to the youth and then creating job opportunities for them so that they can attain self-actualisation here at home instead of boarding rickety boats to Europe. Without something to hold back on back at home, there is nothing that will stop the young people from seeking to leave.

Something has to be done urgently.

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