The Gambia Immigration Officers vehemently denied allegations currently making rounds on social media. The department is accused of accepting bribes from travelers coming into the country who are required to be placed under requisite quarantine for the period of two weeks (14 days)  to curb and prevent the rapid spread of Covid-19 in The Gambia.

The Public Relations Officer of The Gambia Immigration Department, Superintendent Mamanding Dibba said, it is insuperable for anyone to escape from the airport considering the stringent measures put in place to combat the virus.

”The security strategy and measures at the Banjul airport in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic are at their highest levels, and it would have to take miracles for any officer to aid and abate people escape quarantine. When the allegation first emerged, the GID high command swiftly intervened and deployed anonymous and undercover security officers to the airport to launch an investigation and check for themselves. But so far, what is clear is that the allegations are baseless and fabrications,” Dibba confirmed.

“The operations conducted at the Banjul International Airport during Covid-19 make it impossible for any immigration officer to have a chance of helping passengers to escape quarantine contrary to the rumor that is making rounds on social media,” he said.

He added that, in 2005, International Health Regulations took responsibility to manage communicable diseases at the airport under the National Public Health Authority.

“But since migration is a key determinant of public health with a lot of cases being imported, the GID has been working closely with the Ministry of Health at all entry and exit points including the Banjul Airport.

We are working with a task force consisting of public health officers, Immigration, civil aviation, anti narcotic officers and even intelligence.

These working groups would hold briefings before arrivals to discuss matters of operations and all decisions are informed and guided by the flight manifest.”

Dibba further explained, the procedures at the airport. ”Upon arrival, passengers are received at the foot of the aircraft by a bus, escorted to the arrival hall under strict security surveillance, and then get through the Immigration disembarkation procedures after which passports are handed over to the health officers in the presence of everyone as a guarantee for passengers to fully undergo quarantine.”

He equally noted that, immigration officers no longer return passports of arriving travelers as a precautionary measure to avert them from escaping quarantine.

“So where will the Immigration personnel be able to play a special magic to help passengers escape? If they escape Immigration, the passenger manifest will show the short falls because you cannot have 20 passengers on the manifest and receive less than the same number of passports. So these allegations are false and we want to urge the public to remain in support of their officers in national duty in the fight against a common enemy,” Mr. Dibba concluded.

By: Fatoumatta Samateh