Aware Migrants

n an interview with DW, the Head of  IOM in West Africa speaks about the situation in Gambia and its effects on migration. There is hope in the country, but stemming the huge flow of migrants from Gambia to Europe means creating better prospects at home.

Richard Danziger, the Head of  International Organization for Migration (IOM) in West Africa, discussed in an interview with Adrian Kriesch for the German international news network, Deutsche Welle the latest political changes in Gambia and their effects on migration. Here are excerpts from his interview:

“It always takes time to see trends. It’s difficult to calculate a change after an event. What I hear anecdotally is that fewer people are leaving. There is a lot of new hope with the new government, (…) But if people don’t see more jobs in a few weeks or months, we might be back to pre-regime numbers.”

“I’ve met with several government ministers. They are very concerned about the numbers of youths leaving, not just in terms of reducing the loss of human capital in the country, but of course in terms of loss of lives.”

“IOM is providing assistance to Gambians who return, in particular those coming back from Libya. This year we’ve brought back some 700 Gambians who had been in detention in Libya and we’re doing our best to help them set up new lives here. What we will start doing is reaching out to families and communities to explain what young Gambians face if they take the so-called back door to Libya and the north. We will be using returnees to (speak about their experiences) and make sure others don’t follow the same path they did, ending up in trouble in the desert, in Libya or the Mediterranean and so forth.”

Source:  read all the interview by Adrian Kriesch with Richard Danziger on  dw.com/ June 6, 2017