Africa-Press – Gambia. Interior Minister Abdoulie Sanyang has disclosed that following the successful issuance of national identity cards to Gambians in Mauritania, the government is planning to dispatch another team to Gabon, Congo and Togo.
Sanyang made this disclosure on Wednesday in parliament in response to a question from Latrikunda representative Yaya Sanyang who asked him to explain the administrative and legal framework under which Gambians in Mauritania are processed and issued ID cards and measures put in place to ensure their authenticity.
Minister Sanyang asserted that “due diligence was thoroughly followed” and the process was conducted “smoothly with no recorded incidents of fraud”.
He cited Section 17, Sub-section 1 & 2 of the Nationality and Citizenship Act which guarantees all citizens at 18 and above the right to acquire a national identity card regardless of their geographic locations.
NAM Sanyang further asked the minister to explain why the government specifically chose Mauritania for this exercise since it’s not the only country where Gambian citizens are.
Minister Sanyang said the reason was that there was need and urgency as some European countries are sponsoring countries like Mauritania to curb irregular migration by pushing back or sending away suspected migrants
“Mauritania is pushing back these migrants and we have a lot of Gambians who are in Mauritania without documents and they wanted to bring them back. Some other countries like Senegal, went to collect their people,” Sanyang added.
He further explained that there are other Gambians in Mauritania like Arab-Islamic students who were taken there at very young ages and others who are born to Gambian parents in Mauritania and were not issued documents.
“I was just from Mauritania last week and because of what happened in Mauritania we are trying to also to send a team to Congo, Togo and Gabon to process Gambians residing there,” he explained.
Asked whether those issued ID cards fulfilled all the legal requirements before issuance, Minister Sanyang stated: “The ID cards were not issued in Mauritania. It was just a team that went and did the interviews and accessed the necessary documentations and those who meet the criteria will have their documents sent to The Gambia and we do the printing here and send them back to Mauritania.”
Member for Wuli East Suwaibou Touray asked the minister to clarify why these people were not issued passports instead of ID cards since they are intending to travel. In response, Sanyang stated: “Mauritania is a transit country so they are raiding suspected migrants without documents. So there was a need and an urgency and that’s why government went there first.”
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