By Nelson Manneh
Members of the Senegalese transport union have embarked on a strike to stopping Gambian vehicles from leaving or entering Senegal.
The Gambia Government introduced a new transport tracking system which attracts a fee of One Thousand and Six Hundred Dalasi (D1600).
The system monitors all commercial vehicles, including trucks that carry goods on transit across the Gambia. A tracker is attached to all trucks that have goods on transit and they are monitored to make sure that they go to their destination and not offload in The Gambia.
The reason for coming up with this new tracking system, according to the Gambian authorities, was to keep track of vehicles on transit. The authorities discovered that some drivers would claim that they are on a transit and they will be cleared at the border, but when they reach Jarra Soma, Lower River Region, they will head to Basse or Banjul where they offload their goods.
The act of the drivers is seen as a practice to defeat the system and the system was introduced to track the trucks.
On Wednesday, the Senegalese commercial vehicle drivers, mainly truck drivers, protested against the new transport system of monitoring them. They expressed dissatisfaction calling for the removal of the new system.
Our reporter was at the border to enquire from the people concerned.
The Senegalese drivers said the fee attached to the tracker is expensive, adding that they also pay other charges when crossing the Senegambia Bridge.
They also alleged that they also make some other payments at some of the police checkpoints within Gambian territory before reaching their destinations.
“We pay a lot of money at the Senegambia Bridge and also at some of the checkpoints in The Gambia before reaching our destination. With this new fee attached to the new tracking system, it makes it extra payments,” Babucarr Ndour, a Senegalese truck driver narrated.
At the border, this reporter observed that the Senegalese drivers blocked the road, not allowing Gambian trucks and other commercial vehicles to enter Senegal. They claimed that the fee attached to the new tracking system is expensive, that they are not crossing and therefore no Gambian commercial vehicle will enter Senegal.
“We want our frustration to be known by the two governments [Gambia and Senegal]. We cannot pay this new tracking fee. We want the Gambia government to remove this new system because it does not favour us,” Babucarr said.
The protest was able to stop the movement of trucks as they insisted that the two Governments should work together to address it.
The protest was later called off around 1 pm.
Modou Cham, the Vice President of the North Bank Regional Transport Union said the strike came as a result of the vehicles tracking system and the fee attached to it.
He stated that before the coming of the tracking system, trucks coming from Senegal used to say that they are transiting to the Casamance and they will be cleared by the custom officers as transit goods, but when they reach Jarra Soma, they will either branch towards Basse or Banjul and offload their goods in the Gambia.
“This happened on several occasions and it is because they do not want to pay for their goods. Goods transiting to other countries pay less than goods that come to The Gambia,” he said.
Cham said the Gambian truck drivers are abused by the Senegalese revenue officers because they have to pay money for their goods. He added that they pay significant amount of money to the Senegalese officers.
“The Senegalese drivers claimed that they nominally do some payments at some checkpoints in the Gambia, our drivers also do that before they reach their destinations,” he said.
“Before the coming of the vehicles tracking system, The Gambia government was losing alot of revenue because most of the vehicles will enter the Gambia with the claim that they are on transit and they won’t pay for their goods,” he stated.
He said the Senegalese don’t joke with Gambian truck drivers, but their drivers have the habit of bypassing the Gambian system.
“The tracking system is not only applied to Senegalese truck drivers. It applies to both Gambian and non-Gambian drivers carrying transit goods.”
He said the Senegalese drivers complained that The Gambia has a lot of police checkpoints.
“In Senegal too, there are checkpoints there too,” Cham said.
Omar Ceesay,the President of the Gambia Transport Union, who was at the Farafenni-Kerr Ayib borde on Thursday, said the issue is all about the E-tracking system that is attached to all transit trucks.
He said the system does not only apply on the Senegalese trucks but on all trucks, including Gambian trucks.
“It is now going to be tooth-for-tooth. If the Senegalese drivers stop our vehicles from crossing the border, we will stop them, too. If they allow us to pass, we will also allow them too, period,” Omar Ceesay said.
The tranport president said he has witnessed many occasions where truck drivers carry goods and inform GRA officers that they are on transit and when they enter the Gambia, they will offload the goods in the country without paying for them.
“All this was happening because they did not want to pay the custom duties for their goods. If the Senegalese drivers stop our truck drivers from entering, we will stop all their vehicles from entering the Gambia. We are tired of all negotiations,” Ceesay said.
Ceesay said the Senegalese drivers were protesting in the presence of their security officers.
“I concluded that the Senegalese security succumbed to what their drivers were doing. That is why they never stopped them and allowed them to stop our drivers from crossing,” he said.
He said while he was on his engagement with the drivers at the border, he was then informed that the two Presidents (Adama Barrow of the Gambia and Basir Diomaye Faye of Senegal) discussed and urged both parties to call off the strike that they will solve the issue as soon as possible.
“We will not relent, and we are not going to start a protest of this kind, but if they protest, we are going to do a counter protest,” he said.
