By Fatou Sillah
The Public Relations Officer of the Gambia Immigration Department (GID), Siman Lowe, has called on landlords nationwide to verify the immigration status of non-Gambian tenants before offering accommodation, emphasizing their role in supporting national migration control efforts.
Speaking in an interview with Teledal TV, Lowe said effective immigration enforcement requires collaboration beyond security agencies, noting that property owners and local communities are critical partners in identifying undocumented migrants.
“If a tenant comes to your house as a landlord, you will need to first confirm if the person is well-documented or not. If the person comes in new and doesn’t have any residence permit, you shouldn’t even allow those people to stay within your compound,” he stated.
He stressed that landlords are uniquely positioned to help prevent undocumented migration, pointing out that some migrants reside in private homes without valid documentation.
“You live in an environment; you see non-Gambians who stay around that area. What do you do? You make sure they are also documented,” he said.
Lowe further explained that immigration authorities cannot effectively monitor individuals who remain indoors for extended periods, making community vigilance essential.
“So what happens if somebody stays in a house 24/7? How will GID staff be able to know if this particular guy doesn’t have a document in place? So that now becomes the job of the landlords, the Alkalos and communities as well,” he said.
He noted that the GID continues to conduct nationwide inspections, supported by border control systems and community-level monitoring, as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen migration management.
Lowe also highlighted emerging trends involving irregular migrants being sheltered in private compounds prior to attempting irregular migration journeys.
“Recently, we have seen a new trend where you would find irregular migrants that would be harbored in a particular compound for a week or two; if we were able to understand that anybody who comes into a compound is documented, then we wouldn’t have had about 25 people stay in a particular compound to undertake a backway journey,” he said.
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