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Gambia: Confessions of Dejected Returnees
RSS FEED: Courtesy of Modou Jonga,
Four Gambian in their mid twenties have made no bones about their unsuccessful adventure in search of greener pasture in Spain.
Speaking
to this reporter, the four dejected returnees said they boarded a boat
on an Island called Johe in the Senegalese region of Cassamance in the
month of September this year. They said there were 72 aspirants
migrants on board the vessel, twenty-seven of whom are Gambians.
According to the quartet, they sailed for ten days in the sea and arrived in Spain on the eleventh day (11).
They
narrated that they ran out of food and that there was no medical care
available on board the board to take care of their sick mates. "We paid
D35000 for the Journey" they lamented.
Speaking
further, the quartet noted that upon arriving on the coast of the
Spanish Canary Island, they were met by the Spanish Civil "guides" and
Spanish navy officers who provided food, water and medical care for
those whose skins were affected by the salty water.
"Therein,
we were taken to a Spanish Police Camp where we spend one week" they
lamented. The returnees confessed that they were arraigned in court and
were asked their country of origin and where they boarded the vessel.
They also noted that whilst in court, they were
each given a piece of paper which states out that a maximum of forty
days is to be spent in a Camp by an Immigrant.
The
quartet narrated that while they were in the camp, they were informed
on a particular night by the Spanish police that they will be taken to
Barcelonia where they will be freed and they would make efforts to
trace their relative or friends who they will stay with.
"We
were dismayed when we were deported to The Gambia" they remarked.
According to the quartet, some of the deportees were demoralised and as
a result were crying before disembarking from the plane. They said an
amount of 300 (three hundred) Euros was given to each of them at the
entrance of the plane.
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