In 2015, Abdoulie Dampha of Basse Kabakama in Upper River Region embarked on the infamous ‘back way’ (irregular migration route) to Europe. He was in his mid-20s.
It took him two and half years to arrive in the North African nation of Libya – the departure point for the final journey to Italy via the Central Mediterranean route.
Dampha said he was motivated to travel to Europe via irregular means after his mates attempted the journey and made it to Europe.
He said he wanted a “better life” and that social and economic conditions at home were “unbearable” at the time.
Like many other irregular migrants from The Gambia, the young Dampha never applied for any visa. He had little or no knowledge about visa application processes, and was largely skeptical because he heard of many Gambians who applied for Schengen visas and were rejected.
While there were numerous visa rejections by European consular services in The Gambia, a good number of Gambians travelled regularly to Europe, including the Schengen area, with visa.
But Dampha wasn’t sure if he will be given a visa had he applied for one. “I just had this feeling that even if I try to apply for visa, I will not get it. So, I used the ‘easiest’ way,” he told Mansa Banko Online.
But the back way is never an easy journey. It is fraught with kidnappings, imprisonment, torture, and death at sea or in the Sahara Desert.
Dampha lived and worked in various countries includingo finance his journey to Libya. He faced numerous challenges along the way, and was detained in Agadez and Tripoli – an experience he describes as “horrible”.
Unable to reach Europe, the young Gambian decided to return home in 2017. He is now into the business of selling fish and is doing well in his new venture.
A number of Gambian migrants attempt to travel to Europe without visa, as they believe they will receive asylum in the EU as refugees. This shows that there is a lack of knowledge among Gambian migrants on international law governing migration and refugees.
The 1951 Refugee Convention (the Geneva Convention) and the 1967 Protocols do not recognize migrants looking for economic opportunities as refugees.
The Convention defines a refugee as “someone who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
Lack of knowledge of visa processes
Like Dampha, most Gambian migrants travelling to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea to Italy have not attempted to use a safe route by applying for visa.
It is not that they do not want to secure visas and travel through regular channels. There is simply a vast lack of knowledge of visa processes for travel to European countries, especially the Schengen area.
While some irregular migrants are skeptical about visa processes and the fear of being denied a visa by the consular services, many do not know about legal frameworks that govern national, sub-regional and international migration.
Returnees from Libya, Niger, Burkina Faso and other countries along the Sahara have narrated horrendous accounts of their experiences travelling through irregular routes.
Mustapha Sallah, 28, experienced detention and the harsh conditions of Libyan jails when his attempt to reach Europe was brought to an abrupt halt in the North African country.
Today, he uses Youth Against Irregular Migration (YAIM), an organization his founded with some migrant returnees, as a platform to discourage Gambians from irregular migration through community and media awareness campaigns.
When Sallah decided to travel to Europe through the back way, he didn’t know about the right procedures to secure entry to a Schengen country using safe and legal means – though he was once denied a visa to the Asian nation of Taiwan.
“I didn’t know much about the processes involved in applying for a Schengen visa,” he said.
Regular migration and visas
Getting a visa to a European country remains a big challenge for Gambian migrants, according to a 2020 Civil Society Input to EU-Africa Cooperation On Migration – a working paper by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles written by Gibril Faal of the London School of Economics.
Schengen countries have no embassies in The Gambia, and all visa applications are processed in Senegal, resulting in additional costs.
Despite this, many Gambians who applied for visas to Schengen countries and were successful had a safe and orderly migration to Europe.
In 2004, Malang Bah, a young Gambian traveled to Switzerland, a Schengen country, after he was granted a visa by the Swiss Embassy in Dakar, Senegal.
Bah is married to a Swiss woman and he said the visa application process was “easy.”
His national and marriage documents were authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Banjul, and within three months he received his visa.
“It wasn’t a difficult process for me because I got married to a citizen of that country,” he said. But it must be stated that Bah had privileges or advantages that come with marrying a Swiss national in terms of visa procedure. Many Gambians do not enjoy such privileges when seeking visas to Europe. The EU also has a scheme to bring in talent from other countries such as The Gambia.
The EU Blue Card Scheme which was reviewed in 2016 focuses on high-skilled migrants and is only available to those who have specific expertise in an area of information technology or academic research.
However, the scheme has the advantage of ensuring migrants have a job that is secured in advance and are able to travel safely and legally, according to The Migrant Project.
For Bah, entering Europe with a Schengen visa has countless advantages, including being able to enter over a dozen European countries.
“You are free to roam around Europe” with a visa entry to the bloc, he said.
Main causes of rejections
According to Europe-Visa which provides visa guide information to intending travelers to Europe, a number of factors are responsible for visa rejections.
These include insufficient or incorrect personal information, an incomplete travel itinerary, and a lack of sponsorship letter in cases where the travel is sponsored.
Other factors include insufficient financial means or proof of income for travel, evidence of forged documentation, insufficient travel insurance coverage (less than 30,000 Euros), and other forms of non-compliance with the procedural requirements of obtaining a visa.
Schengen shouldn’t be the ultimate goal
However, getting a Schengen visa does not have to be the ultimate goal. Applying for a Schengen visa is not easy, and many Gambians spend thousands of dalasi only to get rejected.
For example, Gambians seeking European visas are compelled to endure time-consuming and costly visa processes.
Gambians are compelled to travel to Dakar, Senegal, in some cases overnight, submit their applications the morning they arrive or the next day, and return to Banjul. This comes with a high cost of transportation to and from Dakar, and food and accommodation in the Senegalese capital. They are told to come back in a week’s time, only to receive a visa rejection letter, and the visa fees of up to 54,000 CFA (roughly D5,000) are non-refundable.
But there are quite a number of alternatives to the back way, especially in the ECOWAS region where citizens do not require visas to travel and seek opportunities or in other visa-free countries in Africa.
Sheriff Joof, a Gambian youth who travelled to Equatorial Guinea in 2015 to explore opportunities in that country, believes that Africans need to look inwards for the many opportunities that exist within the continent.
“Europe is not the only place where the youth can make it. There are real opportunities within Africa that the youth need to know and take advantage of,” the former ITC lecturer at Insight Training Center said.
Joof moved to Malabo in 2015 and get a job as the Head of Marketing and Event Management in one of the biggest printing and event management companies called Global Solutions Malabo.
He worked for this company for five years and was able to raise enough funds to start his own printing company, Global Solutions Art, in The Gambia shortly after his return in December 2020. He offers printing services on different items like cups, mugs, key holders, bedsheets, T-shirts, flyers, and event decorations to his Gambian clients.
“My stay in Malabo was fruitful as it added value to my life,” said Joof who employs three Gambians.
The way forward
Regular and irregular migrants who spoke to Mansa Banko Online agreed that irregular migration is dangerous and not the ideal way of traveling to Europe because even if one reaches Europe through the back way, you will most likely not be granted protection.
The EU countries now consider Gambia a safe and stable country after the fall of a 22-year dictatorship.
For example, in Germany, up to 10, 300 Gambians were seeking asylum in 2019, according to data from the country’s federal statistical office, Destatis. More than 4,000 of these asylum applications were refused in the state of Baden-Württemberg alone, the Gambia refugee association said.
Across Europe, more than 14, 000 Gambians who are found to be illegally present in EU-member states (having entered illegally or overstayed their permits or have their asylum requests refused) have been ordered to leave, according to data from the statistical office of the EU, Eurostat.
It is important for The Gambia government to create the necessary education, and skills development needed in the country, and to create more employment opportunities to curb irregular migration.
It is also of utmost importance for the government to work towards safe migration schemes for Gambians.
“There are no programmes, schemes and actions for legal migratory pathways for young or semi-skilled Gambians to travel and or work in Europe,” according to Faal. “The Gambia is not participating in any structured form of temporary, circular or educational migration schemes with EU countries.”
