In a small village of Palang Toro, in Niani District of Central River Region North, lived Janneh Keita, a 28-year-old school drop-out.
He’s born and bred in this rural settlement that was later to be almost deserted of able-bodied men, particularly those in the age-bracket of 25–35 years. Reason: They took the ‘backway’– a popular local Gambian parlance for irregular or clandestine migration to Europe, through the long, dangerous routes of the Sahara Desert in North Africa to cross the Mediterranea sea and reach Europe.
The many unlucky ones would have their hopes dashed when the most often unseaworthy overcrowded boats they are voyaging on cross the high seas would capsize leading to colossal loss of lives, mostly of the continent’s youth folks.
Despite the challenges life throws at Janneh Keita, due to his lack of formal education or acquired skills, coupled with having been born in a poor rural household, he had previously never fancied the idea of embarking on the back-way. Not even when his own biological brother, Karamo Keita, took the risky journey.
Janneh’s abhorrence of the perilous journey even grew stronger when his brother returned, after his unsuccessful attempt to reach Europe.
Following his ill-fated journey, Karamo was voluntarily returned with a host of other young Gambians who were stranded in the restive North African state of Libya–through migrant returns facilitated by International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The backway returnees decided to band together in an association dubbed ‘Youth Against Irregular Migration (YAIM)’ in 2017, and Karamo was made the chairperson of that association. It began to grow bigger as more and more stranded Gambian migrants in Libya aborted their planned journey to Europe and decided to voluntarily return to their motherland-The Gambia. They joined YAIM in the campaign against irregular migration by sharing their real life experiences of the horrendous and life-threatening journeys.
Given young Janneh’s obsessive dislike of the back-way, he was included in YAIM’s nationwide sensitization campaign against irregular migration in 2020. It was part of the association’s project funded by the German government through its embassy in Banjul.
Surprisingly, Janneh’s disdain for back-way, amplified by the horrific stories narrated by his brother and other returnees, could not eventually dissuade him from the embarking on the journey himself.
Mansa Banko Online has gathered that Janneh Keita left the Gambia in February, 2022 and through the Senegalese capital, Dakar, traveled to Mali, heading to Libya and Europe. He left together with his two age-mates of the same village.
According to someone who claims to be close to Janneh, but asked not to be named in the story, the 28-year-old had been saying: “I am left with no option but only to travel to the backway, because I am married and my brother is married. And, we are both living in the same family compound.
“In the near future, our wives could have problem and my brother might ask me to leave the compound; and I will not have any option but to leave because he built the house and fenced the compound, so he might claim that everything belongs to him.”
But Janneh was not the ‘lone crusader’ that threw in the towel or capitulated to the desire of reaching Europe through the ‘visa-free’ but uncertain and deadly journey.
In recollection, a 30-year-old Ms. Rohey M. Bah, a resident of Brikama in the West Coast Region (WCR), was also an anti-backway campaigner. But in October 2020, she took the irregular route with the hope of going to Spain; but her journey was, however, futile.
Ms. Bah eventually returned to the Gambia on 2nd December, 2021 with the support of IOM from Mauritania.
Hear her explanation: “I left the country because I couldn’t sell my fish produce. It was the Senegalese that were having direct access with the Mauritians to the fish meal factory, me been a Gambian and the only woman engaged in that line of business, selling fish to the fish meal factory, I was denied that chance because they (fish meal factory) said that they already have contractors or agents whom they are buying fish from,.”
Irregular migration crusades
The Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), a flagship project of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), the programme action “Tekki-Fii” (a Wollof word meaning ‘Make it in The Gambia’) seeks to contribute to socioeconomic development and nurturing of positive prospects for the Gambian youth, including returnees and/or potential migrants by promoting attractive employment and income opportunities.
YEP focuses on vocational training and support for micro-and small-sized enterprises and creating new jobs through value addition and market linkages.
Over the years, YEP and YAIM have lots of project partnerships. YAIM has participated in the consultation meeting to evaluate the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF)-IOM Reintegration Project from 2017 to 2021.
The association also led the first Multi-Stakeholder Round-table Discussion on Irregular Migration and Transitional Justice Conference funded by International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC). It also organized a week-long Community Reflection Session with opinion leaders, local authorities, migrant returnees, and ward development committee. The session was centered on migrant reintegration and funded by the National Youth Council (NYC).
Tekki Fii Grants and Loan amounts
Through Tekki Fii projects and collaboration, YEP works with the government, business community, youth groups and development partners to show young people – especially those most vulnerable to migration – that they can survive and thrive in The Gambia.
The project offers solar grant of up to two hundred and fifty thousand (D250,000.00) and is supported by GIZ International Services in German-Gesellschaft für Internationale Zussammenarbeit (GIZ).
The agribusiness grant also caters for applications up to two hundred and fifty thousand dalasis (D250,000.00) and is offered by the Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr (IMVF).
The Tekki Fii Mini Grant provide support of up to fifty thousand dalasis (D50,000.00) in all sectors and across the country. It is supported by ITC/YEP.
The grants facilitate acquisition of equipment, materials, licenses and other business-critical inputs and assets for beneficiaries. The grants are disbursed either as cash or kind, but kind disbursements were given priority, where feasible. No collateral, interest rate or repayment are required in these grants. And grantees receive financial literacy training to improve their capacity to save, exercise financial planning and separate their private funds from the funds of the business.
In the implementation of the grants, the National Association of Credit Unions of The Gambia (NACCUG), through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was responsible for the coordination and management of the grants.
In 2018, in bringing a solution to increase accessibility to finance for youth-led Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in The Gambia, YEP in partnership with the Social Development Fund (SDF) launched the Mini Loan Scheme. Two main loan facilities it has are: Working Capital Loans (WCL) and Loans for the Acquisition of Required Machinery, Equipment and Premises.
The average loan amount per beneficiary is GMD150,000. The amount of financing to a single beneficiary is dependent on the application assessment and business plan proposed but was not more than GMD480,000. The loan term is a maximum period of 12 months and a minimum period of 6 months per loan cycle, with an annual interest rate of 10 per cent.
For Working Capital Loans, applicants will be required to provide a collateral value of 75% of the total loan requested while loans disbursed for the acquisition of machinery, equipment, new premises, improvement and expansion of existing premises require a joint registration of the items in the names of both the borrower and the SDF as a security until the loan is fully liquidated by the borrower.
But for some loan beneficiaries, repayment is sometimes a problem, if the business project did not go as envisaged.
This was Bah’s experience, as she narrated her reason for embarking on the said journey, saying she decided to leave the country for greener pastures (in Europe) because all her investments in the fishing boat (business), which was a loan, “has failed and I was not getting support to ‘Make it in The Gambia’, to sustain my business”.
She sadly stated, “So, the only option I have is to leave the country because of my integrity is at stake.”
