Banjul – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, in collaboration with the HOPE Foundation this week (17/01) held a reintegration information session for 120 returnees in the Gambian capital Banjul. The first such session in the West African nation was organized to address questions pertaining to the reintegration assistance returnees are entitled to receive under the EU-IOM Joint initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration.

Five local companies from various sectors including poultry farming, cashew nut farming, and carpentry, attended the event and discussed their services and products with the participants interested in their activities. Participants also discussed existing job opportunities and signed up for their areas of interests for future trainings.

“We try to reintegrate these young people coming back from Libya with work opportunities. We have the capacity to produce all the poultry needs of this country if we receive enough support,” said former IOM beneficiary Mass Jobe, now the manager of EMPAS Poultry company which offers reintegration job opportunities to youth returnees.

Jobe added, “We were very impressed by the character of the returnees who have demonstrated that they want to make their lives better and transform their lives for the better. We need to help them resettle and make good meaning of their lives.”

“Tell the brothers to stay, irregular migration is not the way. We can change the narrative, we are going to write our own story,” said Cherno Gay, a Gambian poet who attended the information session.

Launched in 2017, the EU-IOM Joint initiative aims at strengthening migration governance and the sustainable reintegration of returning migrants in 13 countries in West Africa (including the Gambia) and Libya.

For more information, please contact Marianna Bertelle, at IOM The Gambia; Tel: +2202169647, Email: mbertelle@iom.int