Africa-Press – Gambia. Basiru Jaye, a youth leader and development specialist, has called for a collective reckoning over the continuing loss of young Gambians along the so-called “backway” migration routes, arguing that responsibility for the tragedies extends beyond the state to families, communities, international actors, and migrants themselves.
Speaking in response to recent reports of migrant boats lost at sea, Mr. Jaye described the deaths as “funerals without bodies,” leaving families trapped in grief and uncertainty. He said preventing further loss of life would require “honest and uncomfortable conversations” and a willingness by all stakeholders to accept responsibility and act.
“The recent migration tragedies are funerals without bodies, dreams buried at sea, and families left with questions that will never be answered. They need an honest and uncomfortable conversation. Responsibility lies with all of us—government, communities, families, smugglers, international actors, and even migrants themselves,” he said.
He also indicated structural issues, such as unemployment and weak economic planning, as driving factors behind irregular migration, saying that young people are often left with no safe alternatives to pursue a better life.
“The state bears a heavy share of this burden. Years of limited quality job creation, weak economic planning, and slow structural reforms have left too many young people standing at the edge of life with no safe road forward. When education leads to most of the unemployment, when effort is not rewarded, and when many public institutions feel distant or unresponsive, hope erodes. In that vacuum, dangerous migration begins to look less like recklessness and more like survival,” he said.
Mr. Jaye pointed to deep-rooted structural problems, including unemployment, weak economic planning, and slow reforms, as key drivers of irregular migration. He said many young people feel trapped by limited opportunities at home, making dangerous journeys appear to be their only option.
At the same time, he cautioned against placing all blame on government, saying families and communities also play a role by treating migration as a marker of success and, in some cases, encouraging young people to take extreme risks.
“Yet government cannot be the only scapegoat. Families and communities also shape these decisions. We have normalized migration as success and quietly accepted death as collateral. In our desperation, some parents encourage their children to leave, believing that any future, even one soaked in danger, is better than none at all; this mindset, however understandable, feeds the cycle,” he said.
He also emphasized personal responsibility, arguing that while structural failures create pressure, migrants still make choices and must be fully aware of the risks involved. He was particularly forceful in condemning the involvement of children in irregular migration, calling for stricter enforcement of child protection laws.
“Children, however, must never be part of this gamble. A child cannot weigh risk, cannot consent to danger, and cannot be used as proof of desperation. Any parent or guardian who knowingly takes a child on these deadly journeys violates that child’s most basic right, which is the right to life and protection,” he said.
Mr. Jaye denounced smugglers and traffickers for exploiting vulnerable youth and called for stronger legal and community action to dismantle their networks. He also criticized what he described as hypocrisy in the global migration system, where labor demand in Europe coexists with restrictive immigration policies that leave few legal pathways for young Africans.
“The international system also bears responsibility. Global inequality, restrictive migration regimes, and selective labor demand in Europe create a cruel contradiction: labor is needed, but people are locked out. Borders are fortified, yet legal pathways remain scarce. This policy hypocrisy does not stop movement but simply pushes it underground into the hands of criminals and onto unsafe waters,” he said.
Ultimately, Mr. Jaye argued, the deaths are the result of multiple failures reinforcing one another. Without coordinated action — including job creation, child safeguarding, legal migration options, and accountable governance — he warned that the cycle of loss would continue.
“These deaths are not the result of one failure but of many failures reinforcing each other until every actor accepts responsibility and translates grief into action through quality jobs, protection systems, legal migration pathways, child safeguarding and accountable governance, we will continue to bury young people and tragically, children, whose only mistake was believing life could be better elsewhere,” he said.
Source: Kerr Fatou Online Media House
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