Mustapha K Darboe

Story: In the last decade, irregular migration, locally called ‘backway’, has led tens of thousands of young Gambians to leave the country for Europe, either in pirogues across the high seas to the Canary Islands or by crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Many got stranded en route, often exploited by smugglers or kidnapped for ransom by criminals. Aided by the UN migration agency, IOM, through support from the European Union, thousands such stranded migrants have returned to The Gambia, primarily from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Niger. This story looks into the IOM reintegration scheme, which had assisted 7,618 returnee Gambians by December 2024, uncovering how it was poorly managed, often subjecting returnees to long months of defeating waiting before they can access support and turning the grants for business start-ups into a ‘cash cow’ for IOM-designated suppliers.

Published in: October 23, 2025