Last week Saturday, 8 Gambian migrants were sent home from Germany, barely a week after newspapers in the European nation reported that Gambia has lifted a moratorium on deportation.
On October 20, a German online newspaper Presse Augsburg, has reported that Gambia has changed its initial position of refusing to accept its citizens from Germany.
According to Presse Augsburg, a spokesman of the Germany Federal Ministry of the Interior said he could “confirm that the Gambian government has informed the EU that the previous moratorium on returns has been lifted”.
“Repatriations to the Gambia are therefore possible on scheduled flights from now on,” the newspaper reported the German authorities as saying.
In the failed negotiations of the EU Commission in May 2019, Gambia was required to receive one charter flight per month with a maximum of 25 people to be deported, according to an internal EU document.
Gambia could not be convinced on the content of the EU Good Practice Document for Returned Procedure until today, according to German media.
Besides Italy, the highest recipient of irregular migrants from the Gambia is Germany, especially its South Western region of Baden-Württemberg.
Since 2015, 9,478 Gambians have applied for asylum in Baden-Württemberg until the middle of the year.
Epoch Times also reported the change of position of the Gambian authorities, citing German authorities.
Meanwhile, last week, Kerr Fatou has learned that 8 people were returned from the European country.
A migrant activist in Germany Yahya Sonko told Kerr Fatou all those deported were from Baden-Württemberg.
One of them who contacted Kerr Fatou, Buba, said he was from a city call Heibronn. Heibronn is from the South Western region of Baden-Württemberg.
The 8 people reportedly arrived in Gambia last week Saturday at 3 a.m. Another young man Omar Famara Kassama, a native of Jambanjelly, told Kerr Fatou that he will be returned on Friday. “I am calling you from the police station,” he said.
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