A prominent Gambian migration activist has sharply criticized the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) for attributing the country’s escalating irregular migration crisis primarily to foreign smugglers and migrants, arguing that the claim deflects from critical failures in territorial security and coastal enforcement.
Ebrima Drammeh, founder of the Ebrima Migrant Situation Foundation (EMSF), posed a pointed question in a recent analysis: If Gambian authorities effectively control borders and coastal waters, how are foreign smugglers able to operate freely and launch perilous boats from Gambian shores?
Drammeh’s critique follows reports in which GID officials highlighted interceptions involving mostly non-Gambian migrants and smugglers. One notable case in November 2025 involved the rescue of 82 would-be migrants—52 Gambians, 38 Senegalese, 4 Malians, and 2 Ivorians—along with the arrest of two Senegalese organizers. GID has conducted multiple operations, arresting several suspected smugglers, many of foreign nationality, and intercepting boats carrying mixed groups from across West Africa.
Yet Drammeh contends that even in this incident, Gambians constituted the largest group of migrants. More crucially, he argues, focusing on survivors ignores the accurate scale of the tragedy: the thousands who perish or vanish at sea without a trace.
According to EMSF’s 2025 data, compiled through community reports, departure monitoring, and route tracking, 893 Gambians were confirmed dead from irregular migration attempts—840 at sea and 53 on land routes. An additional 777 Gambians were declared missing, with 26 boats carrying Gambians disappearing entirely. The foundation documented 69 boats departing directly from Gambian territory: 24 reached Spain, 45 were intercepted, and the rest vanished, including two from Jinack Island alone.
These figures paint a grim picture for a nation of just 2.7 million people. Drammeh notes that Gambians represented a disproportionate share of undocumented African youth arriving in Spain, estimating around 15% despite the country’s small population, one of the highest per-capita migrant death rates in Africa.
Central to Drammeh’s argument is the principle of territorial responsibility under international law. Citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he emphasizes that a coastal state exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea (up to 12 nautical miles) and can enforce immigration laws against all vessels in that zone, regardless of nationality. The UN Model Law against the Smuggling of Migrants reinforces that states have jurisdiction over smuggling operations organized or departing from their land or waters.
“Foreign nationality does not remove this responsibility,” Drammeh asserts. He argues that foreign smugglers cannot function without local support—recruiters, safe houses, transport, and knowledge of patrol gaps. This embedding of networks within The Gambia points to internal governance and enforcement shortcomings, not merely an external issue.
Drammeh describes Gambian shores as a “free departure zone” in West Africa, attractive to smugglers due to porous borders, weak coastal monitoring, unchallenged night departures, and minimal early detection. Blaming foreigners, he says, overlooks why smugglers choose The Gambia: low risk and high profit.
Official statistics, he adds, often capture only interceptions, survivors, and returns—failing to account for vanished boats, drowned migrants, and grieving families left without closure. EMSF fills this gap by documenting unreported losses, insisting that “death without paperwork is still death.”
Recent tragedies underscore the crisis. In late 2025 and early 2026, multiple boat capsizings off Gambian coasts claimed lives, with reports of vanished vessels carrying hundreds, including many Gambian youth. Despite GID’s crackdowns and arrests, departures continue, fueled by regional factors but enabled by local vulnerabilities.
Migration remains a regional phenomenon under ECOWAS free movement protocols, but Drammeh stresses that departures are territorial. “When boats leave Gambian beaches and Gambian youth die at sea, this is a Gambian humanitarian emergency,” he writes.
He calls for more decisive actions: recording all departures, bolstering territorial control, enacting pending anti-smuggling legislation, and prioritizing truth over deflection. Only then, he argues, can lives be saved.
As families mourn and communities grapple with loss, Drammeh’s challenge resonates: The key question is not the nationality of smugglers, but why boats repeatedly depart Gambian shores unseen and unprevented.
