{"id":85490,"date":"2025-09-05T17:22:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/200-gambians-missing-at-sea-activist-warns-of-silent-disaster"},"modified":"2025-09-05T17:28:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:28:57","slug":"200-gambians-missing-at-sea-activist-warns-of-silent-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/200-gambians-missing-at-sea-activist-warns-of-silent-disaster","title":{"rendered":"200 Gambians Missing at Sea \u2013 Activist Warns of Silent Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Two boats carrying more than 200 Gambians have gone missing at sea, youth activist Lamin F. Sumareh has revealed.<\/b><\/p>\n

Speaking on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, he warned that families are still waiting in agony for news, while the government appears powerless to act. \u201cOur people are out there, lost in the Mediterranean, and nobody knows if they are alive or dead,\u201d he said, describing the tragedy as part of a wider crisis of neglect facing Gambian migrants across North Africa.Online newspaper subscription<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a single year, more than a thousand Gambian lives can vanish. We are losing the future of this country at sea, in prisons, and at borders. If we do not act, this tragedy will continue,\u201d he further warned.Sumareh expressed frustration with the Gambian government and immigration authorities, who he believes \u201care failing to protect citizens\u201d at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween August and September, four boats left Gambian shores. Where were the immigration officers? Where was the Navy? Migration control cannot be done from offices; you need community intelligence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he also acknowledged that the lure of migration is deeply rooted in frustration with unemployment and poverty. Parents, he added, often unknowingly enable the journeys by selling their land and property to finance their children\u2019s dangerous voyage.Online newspaper subscription<\/p>\n

\u201cA government has a responsibility to protect its citizens wherever they are. But most Gambians abroad feel like they have no representation,\u201d Sumareh said.<\/p>\n

In Mauritania, he explained, Gambians face relentless harassment by police officers regardless of their valid residence permits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are detained, they take your fingerprints and photograph you. That automatically means you have already been deported. But they won\u2019t tell you,\u201d Sumareh revealed.<\/p>\n

Victims are then ordered to travel hundreds of kilometers to the Mauritanian-Senegalese border town of Rosso to regularize their status. After braving over a dozen police checkpoints each demanding bribes, they are finally informed they have already been deported and can never return.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is deportation disguised as legality, and Gambians are paying the price with their dignity and money,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

The activist\u2019s warnings did not stop at Mauritania. In Libya, Gambians keep languishing in prisons for years without legal representation, their families unaware of their whereabouts. In Algeria, police harassment has turned fatal, he said, citing cases of Gambians dying while fleeing police raids, including one who fell from a five-storey building.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when Gambians die abroad, their bodies are often never recovered. Migrants themselves never see them again. That is how invisible Gambian lives have become,\u201d Sumareh lamented.Online newspaper subscription<\/p>\n

He revealed that Gambians are not just dying from shipwrecks; they are also being murdered by the very captains entrusted to deliver them to Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventy-two people died on a boat from Senegal last month. They were not natural deaths. They were tied up, tortured and killed by the captains,\u201d he claimed, adding that knives and cutlasses were used to silence migrants deemed \u2018troublesome\u2019.<\/p>\n

Most captains, he said, are Senegalese, while Gambians often act as agents who recruit passengers from local communities. Several Senegalese captains have already been arrested in Spain following reports filed by survivors.<\/p>\n

Sumareh concluded with a plea for urgent government intervention and wider public awareness campaigns.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Two boats carrying more than 200 Gambians have gone missing at sea, youth activist Lamin F. Sumareh has revealed. Speaking on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, he warned that families are still waiting in agony for news, while the government appears powerless to act. \u201cOur people are out there, lost in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":85489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-85490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\n200 Gambians Missing at Sea \u2013 Activist Warns of Silent Disaster - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two boats carrying more than 200 Gambians have gone missing at sea, youth activist Lamin F. 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