Rome, Italy. Photo: Mohamed KeitaThe Gambia, a tiny coastal nation in West Africa trimmed by white sand beaches and surrounded by Senegal on its land borders, is full of contradictions. A flourishing tourism sector stands in contrast to widespread poverty, unequal access to services, and Yahya Jammeh, Gambia’s erratic leader who has been creating headlines in the run up to the December Presidential elections. Human rights abuses are widespread, real and deadly in the Gambia. The situation for activists, politicians, and journalists, is getting increasingly precarious, aggravated by an abortive coup attempt in December 2014, where three soldiers were sentenced to death in a secret trial.
Yet in the tumultuous landscape of European refugee politics today, irregular migrants from West Africa are at the bottom of the food chain, most likely to be dismissed as ‘economically’ driven migrants searching for a better life. In fact, the distinction between a refugee and other irregular migrants coming from the Gambia is hard to maintain in a country where a lack of democracy is accompanied by governance failures impacting the entire country on a political as well as economic level.
“I was beaten real bad. I was electrically shocked. My arm broke. They hit me with a gun on my forehead. I was nearly dead,” says journalist and refugee Baboucar. “You are free if you support the President. But if you are a human rights activist, or you are a journalist, or you are a politician, you are oppressed.”
