GAMBIANS IN MAURITANIA CALL FOR ACTION OVER ‘HARASMENT’

Several Gambians have contacted The Standard over what they called the persistent daily police provocation, intimidation, persecution and harassment they suffer in Mauritania.
One of them, a student, said their plight is getting worse by the day despite interventions and by the Gambian embassy.
“First of all, resident permit fees have been hiked to over 3000 Mauritanian Ouguiya, one of the highest for any migrant community here. Worst still, Gambians spend days unending at queuing endlessly to obtain that very permit. In the meantime the police continue to  arrest our people taking them to languish in police stations and refusing to free them even after interventions by our embassy officials,” a student attending a unitary in Nouakchott cried to The Standard.
He said even the latest intervention by The Gambia government to issue National ID cards to Gambians there is fruitless because the Mauritanian authorities have  now shifted the goalpost, demanding that everyone now requires a passport to process a permit if you are ever going to get one.
“These are all frustrating and unbearable. Most Gambian migrants here are either students, masons or labourers, yet they are charged exorbitantly for resident permits and made to suffer endlessly to acquire one. Even recently we queued for days for the free residential permit offered by the Islamic Ministry to students with no success”, our source said in distress.
Another Gambian in Nouakchott called for reciprocal measures from The Gambia government to get the Mauritanian authorities come back to their senses.
“Are Mauritanian citizens living in our motherland Gambia better than us (Gambians) living in Mauritania? Why are the Mauritanian authorities not respecting, reciprocating or appreciating all the comfort and hospitality their citizens are getting in The Gambia?” the frustrated Gambian blasted in an audio to The Standard.
Another, a woman, wondered what bilateral relations exist between The Gambia and Mauritanian. ‘While people from Mauritania enjoy peace and total freedom in The Gambia, we are here hiding in our houses for fear of arrest by the police. Please can someone help us from above? We cannot continue hiding or facing harassment,” she cried.
An elderly migrant interviewed by The Standard urged The Gambia government to call the Mauritanian ambassador in Banjul over this matter. “Let them work in with The Gambian embassy here to verify  all these  claims and they will see that we are not being alarmist but are really suffering,” he said.

Source: The Standard