The Point has an audience with Honourable Crispin Grey-Johnson, Gambia’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In this interview, Mr Grey-Johnson spoke well of his recent trip to Spain and other matters. Please read on.

Honourable Grey-Johnson, you recently visited Spain – I would like to know why the visit and what was the outcome of the visit.

We went to Spain within the context of this problem of illegal migration. As you know a lot of West Africans try to get into Europe and the closest point of entry for most of them is Spain, especially the Canary Islands which are not far from the African coast.

The journey has hazards. A lot of them lose their lives on the way – and those who do not lose their lives and succeed in getting across, they constitute for us a loss, in the sense that these are able- bodied people who could contribute in agriculture, industry and in other forms of economic activity. It is lost to the European economy, and is a loss to the country also.

In the past, Europeans have insisted on us helping them identify illegal immigrants from our countries with the view of having them returned.

We looked at the replication of all of these and we thought perhaps that was not the best way to handle the issue – one, if you do bring them back, there is no guarantee that they are going to stay. In fact, I think it is the case that most of them are willing to go back.

And for those who stayed, you have not solve their problems because may be they will still remain unemployed or severely under- employed. So we thought the best strategy would be to address the causes that lead to them wanting to go away, which is developmental. So rather than going out there and bring them back, let us bring them back with a package that could help them settle down in jobs and become productive citizens to the country and useful individuals to themselves and their families.

So we have discussed this strategy with the Spanish Government and they agreed that it makes sense and perhaps we should from now on approach the issue from that perspective. That is the context within which this visit was undertaken. We took Secretaries of State and their colleagues from the key sectors of the economy, Agriculture, Trade, Industry and Employment, Youth and Sports, Interior, which is at the core of the problem. We discussed not only what they had undertaken to help us attack the problem, that is the old money, there has been an amount of 8 million that had been put aside for assistance in training our youths in building skill centers, in creating jobs to also help us increase our capacity to monitor and patrol our boarders.

Over and above that, we wanted to open doors to get Spanish investors to come and invest in Agriculture and Tourism. A lot of the Gambians, who go to work in Spain, do so in Agriculture. So if those guys who own the farms come to Gambia and help us develop our Agriculture here so these people would stay and work here in their own country. So we discussed that and there are good prospects for investment in Agriculture from Spain.

We also talked about Tourism. Tourism is an area of immense advantage for The Gambia. And Spain is also a big tourist destination. They have huge capacities there in the tourism sector. We discussed with them the need for them to support our drive to attract not only tourists but also investors in the tourism sector. We also secured from the private sector an undertaking to create a forum for us to go and meet potential investors and talk to them and bring them over to invest.

We were also able to speak with them and get them to agree to support youth and sports. So they will help us set up two academies, one for football, and one for basket ball and they will also put a lot of money, something like half a million Euros into women’s programmes, directed to the programmes of the Women’s Bureau.

Recently you attended the Ecowas meeting in Ouagadougou, could I be privileged with some details of the main decisions taken there.

The Ecowas summit looked at some of the regional issues, and especially our strategies for the forthcoming African Union Commission elections. As you know we have a candidate who is an incumbent, in the person of Mrs. Julia Joiner, that was one of our primary objectives in attending, to make sure we secure continuous support for her. That was one of the issues we were concentrating on. Of course, there were other house keeping matters, the programs of these specialized institutions and the like.

I would like you to comment on Gambia’s relations with Ghana and also on the reports that Ecowas has set up a commission to look into the matter regarding the 44 dead bodies of supposed Ghanaians found here in The Gambia.

This is a situation that has unfortunately developed or deteriorated to a certain degree. It is even assuming some political dimensions. We decided that it would best to now invite third parties to come and look at it because the country think it is necessary for independent credible bodies and institutions to come and pronounce on it. It is a matter that we think has been exaggerated out of all proportions. As you know we found 8 bodies in The Gambia – people say that they are Ghanaians. You cannot even authenticate whether they are because nobody was able to identify them. But the way some people have picked it up is not only 8 people were found dead here. The earlier reports I saw mentioned 40 then went up to 47. Then I heard 50, 55 and now is over 60. Every time just going up and up. We want to put this behind us. We therefore engaged the government of Ghana to turn over to people who will look at it objectively and make a pronouncement on it, and they agreed. So we met them at emergence of the Ecowas meeting, to this the Ecowas and with UN had been invited to come and we have agreed on how to proceed. From now on it is in their own hands.

Following the Banjul meeting between Senegal and The Gambia, it was reported that last December the vice president of The Gambia and the prime minister of Senegal were supposed to meet in a joint ministerial meeting which would be followed by a summit of the two heads of state.

Can you tell me how soon this meeting would be held and where?

This meeting should have taken place last month or late last November, but around the time we were planning for it there was a change of cabinet in Senegal, a new Prime Minister and there was a small cabinet reshuffle. So we proposed that may be we should give them time to settle down then we would pick up from there. We are working right now on it. We hope that maybe by next month we will be able to have a meeting in Dakar.

We are also trying to prepare for the visit to Banjul of President Wade that will have to be after we have a joint consultative committee meeting that would probably take place towards the end of March.