Halifa Sallah was asked and he indicated that he is not sure whether the government is fully prepared for an avalanche of deportation that is emanating from the US and EU countries. For the past five decades an asymmetrical economic relation has been built between the US and European countries on one hand, and newly independent African countries on the other. This led to free transfer of wealth by international corporations to enrich US and European economies while African economies attract a low percentage of foreign direct investment and earned little benefit from international trade.
He emphasised that this gap in the share in international benefits from agricultural produce and minerals emanating from the continent was breached by development corporations and the absorption of millions of Africans in the US and European labour markets, thus making it possible to send remittances to reduce poverty of their families and promote development.
These developments promoted world peace and good neighbourliness as African nationals integrated into US and EU countries and their local markets. Multi culturalism was promoted and the US and European sectors, especially the elderly, tremendously benefited from care givers from nurses and other care givers from the African Continent.
Now the US, the EU and African countries are all confronted with demands from their population for a better standard of living than the government is now delivering. Instead of finding a common solution which is possible and inevitable; instead of looking for a common solution which is realisable, xenophobia has taken sway, which can only promote hostility between peoples and undermine world peace and good neighbourliness. The world leaders need to sit down and look at the situation. All continents in the world have enough resources to provide quality life and general welfare of the population. The hard-working peoples of all countries are not the problem. The leaders are the problem. The people should not be victims of the misgovernance of the world. They should not be treated like untouchable who deserve only deportation. As it stands, the country is poised to be shocked to have more than ten thousand Gambians deported back to the country without any preparation to absorb them in the socioeconomic domain of the country. Deportation poses a significant threat, so African governments and their US and European partners should reconsider before fully implementing such policies. The agenda is counter productive and will sooner or later be regretted after the damage is done.
