The Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) Banjul office on Thursday, July 14th convened a two-day training workshop for 24 senior officers of The Gambia Immigration Department (GID) on Collaborative Approach and Integrated Border Management (IBM) held at Metzy Hotel in Senegambia.
The workshop aimed at building the .apacities of senior officers on IBM through discussions on issues around challenges of information sharing, cooperation, and coordination.
During the opening ceremony, the DCAF – Banjul Senior Border Management Adviser and Deputy Head of Office, said that as frontline officers at border posts, Immigration Officers need to work in accordance with international best standards.
He noted the importance of reviewing the GID Act of 1965 to ensure that it reflects contemporary migration issues, and assured of DCAF’ s commitment to strengthening GID’s efficiency and accountability.
Speaking on behalf of the GID Director General, Commissioner, Foday Gassama, head of the Migration Management Unit, expressed delight with DCAF for providing the much-needed training. “As officers responsible for the management of movement, it is paramount that we have the requisite knowledge to guide us in professionally undertaking our work,” he said. Commissioner Gassama thanked DCAF for its partnership and support.
With resource persons drawn from GID, DCAF, and IOM, the trainees were taken through topics; ranging from trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, protection of vulnerable migrants, transnational organised crime, and migrant smuggling and security. When asked his expectations from the training, Superintendent Ebrima Ceesay, one of the trainees, said, “I hope that by the end of this training, I will be able to understand better the concept of integrated border management and how I can use that to foster effective cooperation between our partners in the migration sector.”