Ghana Town, The Gambia – As daybreak breaks over Ghana Town, a fishing village alongside The Gambia’s Atlantic coast the place hundreds of residents stay with out official documentation, Marie Mensah strikes rapidly by way of her morning routine: dressing her kids, making ready breakfast and checking their schoolbags earlier than strolling them to the roadside.
Three of her 4 kids – aged between six months and 10 years – attend a fee-paying personal college, not by alternative, however by necessity. Without nationwide identification paperwork, enrolment in tuition-free public colleges is almost inconceivable.
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“They ask for documents we don’t have,” Mensah, 30, instructed Al Jazeera. “So the public schools refuse them.”
From a distance, Ghana Town, about 35km (22 miles) from the capital, Banjul, seems like several village in coastal Gambia, with fishermen untangling their nets and mounting wood boats in direction of the ocean. But for most people dwelling right here, every day begins with uncertainty: the query of whether or not they legally belong to the one nation they’ve ever recognized.
About 850 of the city’s 900 residents lack citizenship, passports, and even nationwide identification, based on the Village Development Committee (VDC), which oversees neighborhood issues in the city.
Ghana Town was based in the late Fifties by 10 Ghanaian fishermen who sailed from what was then the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to ultimately settle alongside The Gambia’s shoreline. Over the years, their households grew. More folks have been born and raised right here, studying native languages and forming a close-knit neighborhood. But although that is the one residence they’ve ever recognized, many of the descendants of the unique fishermen stay trapped in a authorized gray zone.
According to Gambian legislation, a individual born to non-Gambian dad and mom shouldn’t be recognised as a citizen, even when born in the nation. Those who’ve one Gambian father or mother have attained official paperwork. For different residents, it has been a collection of failed functions to the federal government.
After Mensah sees her older kids off to highschool, she takes her six-month-old to the closest immigration workplace, about 15km (9 miles) away in Kanifing. She will as soon as once more attempt to apply for a nationwide identification card, one thing she first tried when she was 18.
“I know they may reject me,” she instructed Al Jazeera. “But I still have to try.”
After hours of ready and paying 500 dalasi ($7) for an software kind, which she fills out with supporting paperwork, officers flip her away, citing that her start certificates, which classifies her as non-Gambian, disqualifies her.
Other residents instructed Al Jazeera their functions have been additionally rejected on comparable grounds.
“If I cannot get an ID where I was born,” lamented Mensah, visibly emotional, “where else will accept me?”
‘We are all stateless’
Under Section 9 of The Gambia’s 1997 Constitution, citizenship by start is decided by descent. Being born in the nation alone doesn’t confer nationality; a minimum of one father or mother should be Gambian.
For many Ghana Town households – who lack each Gambian and Ghanaian citizenship – the legislation has formed and roadblocked their lives for generations.
Amina Issaka, 64, traces her household’s presence in Ghana Town again practically seven a long time.
Her grandparents have been among the many earliest settlers. Today, she, her six grownup kids, 11 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren are all undocumented.
“We are all stateless,” she mentioned. “If we cannot get Gambian citizenship, where else would we go?”
From a small roadside stall promoting cooking components and kids’s objects, Issaka earns simply sufficient to outlive. But constructing a actual enterprise is inconceivable with out identification paperwork.
“I cannot even register my shop,” she mentioned. “Without papers, you cannot grow.”
To formally register a enterprise and even open a checking account, a person is often required to current a legitimate nationwide ID card or passport, together with a Tax Identification Number. In Ghana Town, the overall lack of documentation implies that enterprise exercise operates largely throughout the casual sector.
Those who’re employed however don’t have financial institution accounts usually depend on casual preparations based mostly on belief; some obtain their salaries by way of a pal’s checking account, whereas others, significantly day by day wage earners, are paid in money on the finish of every workday.
“You can work and even receive a cheque. But without ID, the bank will not recognise you,” mentioned Emmanuel Dadson, a 36-year-old trainer and secretary of the VDC, who can be undocumented.
Dadson instructed Al Jazeera that the Gambia Commission for Refugees had promised to regularise their standing in February this yr. February got here and handed, however officers by no means confirmed up in Ghana Town.
Madi Jobarteh, a human rights skilled, instructed Al Jazeera that Gambian legislation supplies citizenship by start, descent, registration, or naturalisation – however vital gaps depart many susceptible to statelessness. Without a nationwide ID or start certificates, people are excluded from schooling, formal employment, healthcare, property possession, and even authorized safety.
“The residents of Ghana Town have lived here for decades, integrated fully, and contributed to the country. There is absolutely no reason why they should still be treated as noncitizens,” he mentioned.
He recommends reforms, together with assured nationality for kids who would in any other case be stateless, stronger start registration, simplified ID processes, and adherence to worldwide statelessness conventions.
Al Jazeera reached out to the Ministry of Interior, which oversees this matter, in addition to the Gambia Immigration Department, however neither responded to our questions. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice reiterated that a individual born to non-Gambian dad and mom shouldn’t be recognised as a citizen, even when born in The Gambia.
Identity underneath strain
While most residents battle with day by day bureaucratic setbacks, others instructed Al Jazeera they’ve confronted even harder penalties: police questioning or detention throughout immigration operations for failing to provide legitimate identification.
Residents say many Gambians, together with immigration officers, are conscious of the circumstances of Ghana Town residents, so persons are launched as soon as they clarify the scenario.
But many, like Dadson, are fearful for themselves and their households.
In 2014, he was briefly capable of get documentation after former President Yahya Jammeh issued a directive permitting some Ghana Town residents to acquire nationwide identification playing cards.
But the measure lacked everlasting authorized backing, and didn’t proceed after Jammeh misplaced energy in 2017. When the residents’ paperwork expired years later, renewals have been refused.
Dadson is now undocumented once more.
Fearing what might lie forward, he not too long ago despatched his spouse and three kids to Ghana.
Without passports, they travelled overland for practically a week throughout a number of West African international locations. Within the area of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), residents say, it’s doable to maneuver throughout some land borders with out a passport, relying on the discretion of border officers.
“The future here is uncertain,” Dadson mentioned, speaking about his option to ship them to Ghana, the place it’s doable to use for citizenship based mostly on descent. “I didn’t want my children to remain trapped.”
For others, the wrestle extends past forms and legislation.
Some residents say they’ve been inspired to undertake extra Gambian-sounding names and surnames to enhance their possibilities of acceptance. Emmanuel Arkoh, 36, refuses.
“Our identity is not negotiable,” he mentioned.
“We are born here, but we belong nowhere.”
Benjamin Amoah, 44, a fisherman, mentioned three of his kids have reached maturity with out documentation, and an software for his sons was rejected as a result of officers thought-about the household title overseas.
“What hurts most,” Amoah added, “is that their mother is Gambian, yet they are still denied.”
Though Gambian citizenship could also be acquired by way of start and descent, residents say navigating official processes requires documentation that many households merely don’t possess after generations of administrative exclusion.
Dreams interrupted
All throughout the village, the shortage of correct paperwork has brought about delays and frustrations. For some, this has put a cease to their future plans and goals.
Joseph Oddoh was among the many area’s high performers in the 2017 West African Senior School Certificate Examination. He earned a scholarship to check medication overseas.
Years later, he has not left Ghana Town.
“He had no travel documents,” neighborhood chief Alex Mensah defined.
Though the VDC tried to intervene on his behalf, the scenario remained unresolved. And Oddoh shouldn’t be the one one. Others from the settlement, together with some college graduates, are unable to pursue grasp’s programmes overseas as a result of they lack important documentation, similar to passports.
Now 28, Oddoh works as a fisherman alongside the identical shoreline the place he grew up.
After practically a decade, he has largely given up on pursuing additional educational objectives, describing himself as pragmatic and targeted on marrying a Gambian to construct a steady future for the following technology.
“My dream of becoming a medical doctor ended because of a single paper,” he mentioned. “I worry my future children will face the same problem.”
While most individuals right here have confronted roadblocks, many residents say there may be one surprising exception: political participation.
Several folks instructed Al Jazeera that they had voted in nationwide elections regardless of missing citizenship documentation, usually utilizing neighborhood attestations confirming residency.
“If we can vote,” one resident requested, “why can’t we have Gambian IDs?”
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) denied registering noncitizens.
“We do not issue voter cards to noncitizens,” IEC spokesperson Pa Makan Khan instructed Al Jazeera, including that it remained unclear how undocumented people may receive registration.
During a city corridor assembly final yr, Fatou Cham, the world’s member of parliament, raised the identical concern. “If they are foreigners, then why are they voting?” she requested, promising to pursue a answer.
The query of belonging
Citizenship provisions in The Gambia’s Constitution have modified little regardless of greater than 50 amendments over practically three a long time.
A 2024 evaluation by the Gambia Commission for Refugees discovered that the majority stateless people recognized have been born regionally. Of 686 folks assessed, solely 53 possessed Gambian passports, paperwork obtained underneath former President Jammeh’s 2014 directive.
Assistant Commissioner for Refugees Omar Camara instructed Al Jazeera authorities are working with the United Nations refugee company to regularise residents’ standing, although restricted funding continues to gradual progress.
The Gambian Ministry of Justice instructed Al Jazeera that citizenship legislation stays ruled by the 1997 Constitution, which bases nationality on descent.
“The Constitution does not grant automatic citizenship solely for being born in the country,” a ministry spokesperson mentioned.
The ministry acknowledged that neither the Constitution nor the Gambia Nationality and Citizenship Act supplies automated safeguards for kids born to noncitizen or undocumented dad and mom, gaps that may contribute to statelessness.
While no legislative amendments have expanded eligibility, the ministry mentioned present authorized provisions supply pathways to deal with sensible challenges, together with instances involving expired identification paperwork.
Outside the immigration workplace in Kanifing, Marie Mensah gathers her papers, together with her start certificates and an previous Gambian voter card, and begins the journey residence.
Tomorrow, she is going to once more wake earlier than dawn, put together her kids for college and encourage them to check for futures she can not assure.
For the hundreds of stateless folks in Ghana Town, citizenship shouldn’t be an summary authorized debate. It determines whether or not a baby can attend college, open a checking account, journey or dream past the shoreline the place generations have lived.
“We are not asking for special treatment,” Mensah mentioned. “We are simply asking to exist.”
