FERNANDO HERNÁNDEZ
The Gambian Government is changing the process of issuing its passports in order to avoid the frauds of which Gambian emigrants who arrive in Spain irregularly are accused. The problem has become evident, especially with young people who, upon arriving in the Canary Islands by cayuco, claim to be minors. To prove this, they present passports and birth certificates that, without being false, do not necessarily reflect the true data of the interested party. “The Gambia has realized the problem and we are working on it,” diplomatic sources maintain. “It is not a question of mafias, but of procedure,” they add.
Gambian passports have caused quite a stir in recent months. Following the arrival of some 2,000 Gambians to the Canary Islands in 2023, the National Police prepared a technical report in which it questions the veracity of the data contained in their passports, especially in the case of those who claimed to be minors. The problem, according to the police, is that Gambia still lives with two passports, one biometric and more reliable, and another older one that, in addition to not containing fingerprints, can be issued without the interested party being present.
The consequence of this report is that a generalized suspicion has been established regarding all Gambians who have declared themselves to be minors and there are several cases of helplessness. Although the police generally doubt the passports of this country, they are not reporting them, which would allow their bearers to defend themselves against the falsification attributed to them or provide other means to prove their age, according to their lawyers. In parallel, prosecutors have been decreeing the age of majority even though the cases were not so clear. At the Gambian Embassy they report that several people affected by this problem have passed through their headquarters in recent months. “Many do not look like children,” they acknowledge. But they also warn: “It is a mistake to generalize, let's give them the benefit of the doubt.”
The most publicized case has been that of a boy who claims to be 14 years old, but the Prosecutor's Office - based on the police technical report, an age determination test (questioned for its reliability) and the appearance of the young man - did not give credibility. to the documents he provided and decreed his majority. The boy had exceeded the time that he could be cared for as an adult and could not be cared for as a minor, so he was left on the street. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child intervened to ask the Spanish authorities to protect him while the case was definitively resolved, but, almost a month and a half later, the boy remains in a homeless shelter. There have also been cases of young people accused of steering the canoes in which they arrived and who are in prison despite claiming to be a minority. “Lawyers demand that the law be followed. A person with a passport is not undocumented and if a doubt arises about age, they must be treated as a minor until it is clarified,” explains lawyer Daniel Arencibia.
In the cases that have been known, Gambian citizens have presented documentation that would prove their minority, reports from the National Police in which there are no signs of falsification and have included authentication certificates from the Gambian Embassy. These certificates confirm that the document is true and valid, because it is, but, in reality, diplomatic sources warn, they do not confirm that the data contained in it are so. Mainly, because they have no way to corroborate it. “We are learning every day. Now we ask you to come in person to issue that certificate,” they explain. In reality, it is not that the passport is false, but that the information contained in it is true. In recent months, they have already issued about 200 authentications, but now the filter is greater.
To end the problem, the Gambian Government's first step has been to implement digitalized birth certificates and eliminate the old ones. This is a mammoth process because the records in The Gambia are informal, but, according to the same diplomatic sources, it will be a first filter to avoid fraud. It is also intended that there be automatic registration of children at birth through the health system. The final objective is for the country to also stop living with its two passports and stay with the biometric one that can only be issued with the presence of the interested party and that offers more guarantees.
The Gambian Embassy emphasizes that there are “cultural differences” that explain why in this African country, as in many others, there is no database with the birth certificates of its citizens, especially in less urban areas. “In many places, when a baby is born, a birth certificate is not issued automatically as is the case in Spain; it is not computerized,” diplomatic sources explain. When someone requires a birth certificate, they go to the village chief and give him a reference to an event or event that occurred when the person concerned was born. Then, the local chief issues a type of certificate with the date of birth based on that generic reference. “Most of the time the year may be exact, but the day and month may not be,” they explain. With this certificate, the civil registry issues the birth certificate. “Everything was done informally,” add the same sources.
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