A Gambian Immigration officer expresses will to sell a Gambian passport to a ‘Guinean national’
By Amadou Manjang
It was late evening at the Serekunda Police Station and some security officers were closing for the day, when Fatima (not her real name), a 23-year-old lady who was on a mission to secure a Gambian passport for her cousin entered the station. She has come to meet Sergeant Lamin Touray who has just walked out from the Immigration office at the station to meet her.
The two were meeting to discuss how to get Fatima’s non-Gambian cousin, a passport. The said cousin never existed, but was created for the purpose of this investigation to expose immigration officers who sell the national document to non-Gambians.
The Sergeant, works at the Gambia Immigration Department. He was posted at former Semlex, a firm contracted by the Gambia Government to produce biometric national – ID card, passport and driver’s licence.
Fatima has been communicating with the Sergeant for two weeks, making arrangements to buy a passport for her non-Gambian cousin. But the Sergeant was uncomfortable further discussing such a ‘sensitive’ matter on the phone and demanded to meet Fatima to know whom he was dealing with.
“What you are talking about is sensitive. So, I can’t just respond to you on the telephone like that. I have to secure myself,” he said.
Fatima met him around 6pm on 19th September 2024 at the Immigration office at Serekunda Police Station. They sat on a wooden bench at the balcony and comfortably discussed the cost of a passport in the open within an earshot of another officer. Their discussion lasted for about 14 minutes.
The immigration officer asked Fatima to pay D15, 000 (approximately US$217), but they later agreed on a cost of D13, 000 (approximately $183).
“Let’s make it 13,000. Anyway, I cannot go beyond 13,000. I can produce it (passport) quickly. You are begging me that’s why I said I will make it 13,000, but if you don’t pay 13,000, I can’t make it,’ he said.
The Sergeant told Fatima that he (the Sergeant) had helped people in urgent need quickly got their passports after they paid him, saying ‘they paid me big money and they got it’.
After sealing the deal with Fatima, he requested the money to be paid in full because he does not accept instalments, and that he would prefer the money to be handed in cash.
”You may not have time but if you can give it to me hand to hand it is better but a Wave also is possible. It is up to you,” he said.
The Sergeant asked Fatima to pay the money and then provide the pictures of the applicant, full name, and date of birth, plus the applicant’s mother’s national identity card.
“If you give me all that information, then the rest is my work?” he said.
Fatima promised to pay him on 2nd October 2024,. Before the date, she phone-called the Sergeant to re-negotiate the cost of the document, but the officer, who was expecting the D13, 000 was disappointed that she was calling him to beat down the cost instead of making arrangements to deliver the cash.
“You people are not serious. Do you think this is a small job?“ he asked.
Gambian passports are categorised into three – diplomatic, service and ordinary passports. The diplomatic passport is red, the service passport is navy-blue and the ordinary passport is green. The ordinary passport is a Machine Readable Passport. The fee for a Machine Readable Passport is D1, 050 (approximately $14) and the fee for Biometric Passport is D3, 060 (approximately $43).
There are many ineligible individuals holding Gambian passports including diplomatic and services passports through bribery as revealed by Malagen. The 2022 National Audit Report found the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) at risk of exchanging passports for cash to ineligible people including non-Gambians.
“We also noted that printed biometric and machine-readable passports in respect of 426 diplomatic and 71 service passports and their respective files maintained by GID did not reflect similar records maintained by MoFA,“ the Audit report stated.
It also stated that there are 5,395 unaccounted passports produced by Gambian authorities, and that diplomatic passports were being used by certain individuals, but records of which couldn’t be traced in any official data.
The selling of national documents is not only limited to the passport but the birth certificate as revealed in a report by The Republic.
Who qualifies for the document?
The law is out-rightly clear on the qualifications or requirements for one to possess a Gambian passport. Any person applying for a passport should be screened to ensure that there is no fraud on his or her part, and should attend the interview when he/she is a first time applicant.
To possess a valid Gambian passport, one needs to present a Gambian birth certificate or a Seyfor’s certificate, four passport-size photographs or National Identity Card. . Or the application shall contain a declaratory form which shall be completed and signed by a magistrate, a civil servant who is on grade 10 or above, Justice of the Peace or a notary public. And when there is a doubt of the nationality of the applicant and none of his/her parents is alive, there should be an affidavit sworn by his/her adult relative members, the Gambia Immigration Act 1996 stated.
The Constitution states how one could be a citizen of the Gambia by birth, descent, marriage or naturalisation. Section 9 states any person born in The Gambia and at the time of his/her birth, one of his/her parents is a citizen of The Gambia, he/she is a Gambian.
Subsection 10 states any person born outside The Gambia but one of his/her parents at the time of birth is a Gambian he/she is a Gambian. Section 11 states any person married to a Gambian and been resident in the country for 7 years, or if married and divorced but have been resident for 7 years is entitled to citizenship, upon application.
Section 12 outlines the way one gets a citizen through naturalisation. It states any person who spends about 15 years in The Gambia and satisfies all conditions (that is he/she is of full age and capacity; good character and has been a permanent resident) can become a citizen through neutralisation.
The Constitution is clear on citizenship while the Immigration Act is also clear on the acquisition of a Gambian passport. Despite the clearness of the laws on who could apply for a Gambian passport, the Sergeant is determined to help a non-Gambia to get it.
“You know he is without any single document. So I am the one to provide that,” Touray told Fatima in one of their telephone conversations. It was clearly known to the Sergeant that the applicant is not a Gambian and has no Gambian documents.
“When he was here, was he able to speak Wolof or other local languages?’ the Sergeant asked about the applicant. But, the ability to speak a local language is not a criteria for a Gambian passport as per the Immigration Act.
Implications of selling national documents
The selling of national documents has political and security implications for the country. Lamin S. Camara, a Gambian legal expert said when a document is ‘illegally’ provided to anyone, a crime has been committed by the issuing officers. “It could be abuse of office or official corruption by the issuing office.”
He warned that if national documents especially passports, are issued to non-Gambians and they abuse it, that poses profound consequences on the integrity of the nation and other holders too.
”States may not respect the privileges accorded to holders anymore. That will have an impact on national security too,’ he added.
The prominent legal expert added that selling of national documents would one day have a ‘profound effect’ on the political and socio-economic dynamics of The Gambia.
Muhammed Lenn, an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of the Gambia commented on how selling of national documents could alter the political setup of the country.
“This can allow non-Gambians to sponsor political parties as well as vote during elections. While I don’t think we’ve reached that stage or likely to do so in the near future, the perception that national documents are being sold erodes public confidence in the electoral and security process/system,“ he said.
He explained that selling national documents makes non-nationals compete with citizens to access services not meant or reserved for them. This lead to unscrupulous people gaining access to public facilities, reside and rent properties, open bank accounts and may even be involved in money laundering as reported by Malagen..
This act of corruption could cause the state to lose a huge revenue to the officers perpetrating it. Such revenues could have been gained for reinvestment in social services.
The involvement of non-Gambians in Gambian politics through illegal accessing national documents has been documented. A story by the Guardian newspaper revealed how former President Yahya Jammeh possessed three card-boxes of fake ID cards meant for paid foreigners to vote in the 2016 presidential election.
The spokesperson for the Gambia Immigration Department has been contacted for comments on this matter, but efforts to obtain his comments were not successful after several follow-ups by this reporter.
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NOTE
This story is produced with support from the PRJ investigative reporting fellowship, with funding from USG through USAID, and implemented by Freedom House. The content of this report does not in any way reflect the views of the US government, USAID, or Freedom House. It is the sole responsibility of the author and publisher.
