By Seedy Jobe
Officials from the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) and the Gambia Fire and Rescue Services have detailed the coordinated operation that led to the rescue of 72 irregular migrants after a boat carrying them caught fire off the coast of Bunyadu in the early hours of Monday.
Speaking on QTV’s This Morning programme on Tuesday, immigration and fire service officials credited the successful rescue to rapid interagency coordination and timely intelligence sharing, while warning that resource constraints continue to hamper efforts to combat irregular migration.
Inspector Lamin Jammeh of the Gambia Immigration Department described the rescue as the result of a strong collaboration among multiple institutions.
“It was indeed a very good interagency collaboration involving not only the Immigration Department and the Fire Service, but several other stakeholders,” Jammeh said. “We rely on information to be able to protect the lives of migrants, and that is exactly what happened yesterday.”
According to Jammeh, the operation was initiated after an alert was circulated through the Migrant Response Group, a coordination platform that brings together agencies including the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), the Gambia Red Cross Society, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Navy, immigration officials, and other partners involved in migration response efforts.
He explained that once reports of the incident were received, agencies quickly mobilized resources and personnel to the scene.
“We want to commend all the stakeholders who have participated because without their coming together, it would have been very difficult for us to rescue the migrants on board in a timely manner, ” he said.
Authorities said the exact cause of the fire remains unclear.
Inspector Jammeh noted that investigators had received conflicting accounts from survivors, making it difficult to establish a definitive cause.
“The actual causes of the fire are something that we cannot establish at our investigation because the migrants themselves couldn’t know, because most of them were saying this and others were saying that. But we know where there is fuel and people, there is a high likelihood of a fire starting,” he said.
Sub-Officer Malang Beyai, Public Relations Officer of the Gambia Fire and Rescue Services, said emergency responders received the first distress call at approximately 6 a.m. on Monday.
Firefighters from the Barra station responded immediately and discovered that some migrants had already escaped toward nearby mangrove areas.
“It all happens in surprise because it is never expected. So, that was the time our guys at Barra were called. So, they responded. It was six o’clock. That day we were called at six in the morning,” Beyai said.
He said rescuers prioritized evacuating those with severe burn injuries, transporting them by pickup vehicles from the riverbank to health facilities to ensure they received urgent medical attention.
“Those who were severely burned were carried to the bank of the river and carried with these pickups to the hospital so as to make things faster because they cannot be sailing on the river with those pains,” he explained.
According to immigration officials, all 72 migrants aboard the vessel were successfully rescued.
The group included five minors and one pregnant woman. Preliminary records indicate that 35 of the migrants were Senegalese nationals, 33 were Gambians, three were Sierra Leoneans, and one was Guinean.
Inspector Jammeh said information gathered from survivors suggested the vessel was bound for the Canary Islands and ultimately intended to reach Spain.
“Based on the condition in which we found the migrants and the information they provided, the boat was heading to the Canary Islands,” he said. “Their destination was Spain.”
Addressing questions about the persistence of irregular migration despite increased enforcement efforts, Jammeh pointed to The Gambia’s extensive coastline, porous borders, and limited operational resources.
He revealed that authorities had intercepted more than 48 migrant boats between January and June 2026, compared with 77 interceptions recorded throughout the entirety of 2025. At the same time, security agencies received reports that approximately 27 boats had successfully departed Gambian shores during the first six months of this year.
Jammeh stressed that public cooperation remains critical to preventing dangerous migration attempts.
“Incidents like this could sometimes be prevented if suspicious movements were reported earlier,” he said. “Fishermen and community members often see unusual activities before authorities do.”
He acknowledged that immigration officials lack the capacity to monitor every departure point along the country’s waterways and coastline.
“We cannot be everywhere,” Jammeh said. “Many of these locations are difficult to access. Some can only be reached by crossing narrow bolongs, and we currently do not have sufficient boats and equipment to patrol all of those areas effectively.”
He added that some areas are inaccessible even to conventional patrol vessels and may require technologies such as drones for effective monitoring.
The immigration official said an upcoming European Union-supported initiative, known as Gambia Project II, is expected to strengthen the department’s logistical and investigative capabilities.
The project, he said, will provide technical support, training, and equipment to improve migration management and enforcement operations.
Despite these anticipated improvements, Jammeh emphasized that addressing irregular migration requires a whole-of-society approach.
“Immigration and the security services cannot do this alone,” he said. “It requires cooperation from communities, local authorities, development partners, and the public.”
Officials from both the Immigration Department and the Fire and Rescue Services praised all agencies involved in Monday’s operation, describing the rescue as a demonstration of the importance of coordinated emergency response efforts in protecting lives at sea.
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