The Gambia government has reviewed its implementation of an inter-governmental agreement that seeks to eventually improve safe and orderly migration through improvement in governance of migration and cooperation of governments.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was formally endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December 2018, following adoption by 164 UN member states including The Gambia.
Designed to support international cooperation on the governance of international migration, the compact is a non-binding agreement that gives States the space and flexibility to pursue the implementation based on their own migration realities and capacities.
The First Secretary under the Diaspora Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Affairs and Gambians Abroad, Pa Malick Nyassi, said The Gambia is a committed signatory to this migration compact which has twenty-three (23) objectives.
“It was in this exercise that the country prioritized fifteen of the objectives of the GCM,” Mr Nyassi explained.
After about three years into the implementation, the government organized a voluntary national review where all relevant major stakeholders were invited to collectively assess some of the progresses made on migration issues as well as the existing challenges.
The senior foreign affairs official said a report of this review was submitted as part of the African regional review, which will then feed into the International Migration Review Forum scheduled for 2022.
To support GCM implementation, the government has established a National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM) which is an intra-governmental platform that synergizes inclusive national migration governance efforts led by the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
“This is the body that coordinates all migration governance issues in The Gambia, so it is seen as progress in terms of the GCM at national level,” he said.
Mr Nyassi pointed out that eight Thematic Working Groups were operationalized under the NCM, and each group is tasked to work on specific areas contributing to the fifteen GCM priority objectives as a means to realize the global compact.
Furthermore, as part of the implementation of the GCM, the government has also developed and launched its first ever National Migration Policy, 2020-2030.
Mr Nyassi said despite the progress made so far, key challenges exist.
“These challenges, principally include lack of accurate data on migrants living in The Gambia or Gambians living abroad, access to timely information during all the migration stages, the limited resources given to voluntary or forced returnees which doesn’t commensurate with the economic realities of the country,” he said.
A major challenge
One of the key challenges in The Gambia in terms of managing migration is the lack of legal framework on human smuggling.
“There is no legal framework on smuggling and that makes it difficult to prosecute those accused of smuggling,” Mr Nyassi said.
But The Gambia government has begun to take actions in this regard. A draft bill on human smuggling has been developed by the government for eventual submission to the National Assembly for enactment.
Fumiko Nagano, the IOM Mission Chief in The Gambia, said: “The UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), one of sister UN agencies, is working with the Government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior on a new bill on smuggling.
IOM, together with UNICEF and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), leads the UN Network on Migration, which exists to support The Gambia in its implementation of the GCM.
“Eventually, The Gambia will have a legal framework to prosecute smuggling, which remains a critical area for improvement in combatting irregular migration.”
The IOM had also worked with the government in the formulation of the National Migration Policy.
“We were very privileged to provide our technical assistance to the Government in developing its first ever standalone migration policy for The Gambia,” said Mrs. Nagano.
She said the policy is squarely centered on the Global Compact for Migration and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The National Migration Policy is a very comprehensive and forward-looking document that provides guidance on how to manage migration, covering areas such as border management, labor migration, migration and development, climate change and environmental migration, counter- trafficking, smuggling, diaspora engagement, remittances and more.
