Ghana City, The Gambia – As daybreak breaks over Ghana City, a fishing village alongside The Gambia’s Atlantic coast the place lots of of residents dwell with out official documentation, Marie Mensah strikes rapidly by way of her morning routine: dressing her youngsters, making ready breakfast and checking their schoolbags earlier than strolling them to the roadside.
Three of her 4 youngsters – aged between six months and 10 years – attend a fee-paying non-public faculty, not by alternative, however by necessity. With out nationwide identification paperwork, enrolment in tuition-free public faculties is sort of not possible.
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“They ask for paperwork we don’t have,” Mensah, 30, advised Al Jazeera. “So the general public faculties refuse them.”
From a distance, Ghana City, about 35km (22 miles) from the capital, Banjul, appears to be like like all village in coastal Gambia, with fishermen untangling their nets and mounting picket boats in direction of the ocean. However 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, in keeping with the Village Growth Committee (VDC), which oversees neighborhood issues within the city.
Ghana City was based within the late Nineteen 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 time, their households grew. Extra individuals had been born and raised right here, studying native languages and forming a close-knit neighborhood. However though that is the one house they’ve ever recognized, many of the descendants of the unique fishermen stay trapped in a authorized gray zone.
In accordance with Gambian regulation, an individual born to non-Gambian mother and father isn’t recognised as a citizen, even when born within the nation. Those that have 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 youngsters off to highschool, she takes her six-month-old to the closest immigration workplace, about 15km (9 miles) away in Kanifing. She’s going to as soon as once more attempt to apply for a nationwide identification card, one thing she first tried when she was 18.
“I do know they could reject me,” she advised Al Jazeera. “However I nonetheless should strive.”
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 delivery certificates, which classifies her as non-Gambian, disqualifies her.
Different residents advised Al Jazeera their functions had been additionally rejected on comparable grounds.
“If I can not get an ID the place I used to be born,” lamented Mensah, visibly emotional, “the place else will settle for me?”
‘We’re all stateless’
Beneath Part 9 of The Gambia’s 1997 Structure, citizenship by delivery is set by descent. Being born within the nation alone doesn’t confer nationality; a minimum of one father or mother should be Gambian.
For a lot of Ghana City households – who lack each Gambian and Ghanaian citizenship – the regulation has formed and roadblocked their lives for generations.
Amina Issaka, 64, traces her household’s presence in Ghana City again practically seven many years.
Her grandparents had been among the many earliest settlers. Right now, she, her six grownup youngsters, 11 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren are all undocumented.
“We’re all stateless,” she mentioned. “If we can not get Gambian citizenship, the place else would we go?”
From a small roadside stall promoting cooking components and kids’s gadgets, Issaka earns simply sufficient to outlive. However constructing an actual enterprise is not possible with out identification paperwork.
“I can not even register my store,” she mentioned. “With out papers, you can not develop.”
To formally register a enterprise and even open a checking account, a person is usually required to current a legitimate nationwide ID card or passport, together with a Tax Identification Quantity. In Ghana City, the final lack of documentation signifies that enterprise exercise operates largely inside the casual sector.
Those that are employed however should not have financial institution accounts typically depend on casual preparations based mostly on belief; some obtain their salaries by way of a good friend’s checking account, whereas others, significantly every day wage earners, are paid in money on the finish of every workday.
“You possibly can work and even obtain a cheque. However with out ID, the financial institution won’t recognise you,” mentioned Emmanuel Dadson, a 36-year-old trainer and secretary of the VDC, who can also be undocumented.
Dadson advised Al Jazeera that the Gambia Fee for Refugees had promised to regularise their standing in February this 12 months. February got here and handed, however officers by no means confirmed up in Ghana City.
Madi Jobarteh, a human rights knowledgeable, advised Al Jazeera that Gambian regulation supplies citizenship by delivery, descent, registration, or naturalisation – however important gaps depart many susceptible to statelessness. With out a nationwide ID or delivery certificates, people are excluded from training, formal employment, healthcare, property possession, and even authorized safety.
“The residents of Ghana City have lived right here for many years, built-in totally, and contributed to the nation. There may be completely no purpose why they need to nonetheless be handled as noncitizens,” he mentioned.
He recommends reforms, together with assured nationality for kids who would in any other case be stateless, stronger delivery registration, simplified ID processes, and adherence to worldwide statelessness conventions.
Al Jazeera reached out to the Ministry of Inside, which oversees this matter, in addition to the Gambia Immigration Division, however neither responded to our questions. In the meantime, the Ministry of Justice reiterated that an individual born to non-Gambian mother and father isn’t recognised as a citizen, even when born in The Gambia.
Identification underneath stress
Whereas most residents battle with every day bureaucratic setbacks, others advised Al Jazeera they’ve confronted even harder penalties: police questioning or detention throughout immigration operations for failing to supply legitimate identification.
Residents say many Gambians, together with immigration officers, are conscious of the circumstances of Ghana City residents, so individuals are launched as soon as they clarify the scenario.
However many, like Dadson, are frightened for themselves and their households.
In 2014, he was quickly capable of get documentation after former President Yahya Jammeh issued a directive permitting some Ghana City residents to acquire nationwide identification playing cards.
However the measure lacked everlasting authorized backing, and didn’t proceed after Jammeh misplaced energy in 2017. When the residents’ paperwork expired years later, renewals had been refused.
Dadson is now undocumented once more.
Fearing what might lie forward, he lately despatched his spouse and three youngsters to Ghana.
With out passports, they travelled overland for practically per week throughout a number of West African international locations. Inside the area of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS), residents say, it’s attainable to maneuver throughout some land borders with out a passport, relying on the discretion of border officers.
“The longer term right here is unsure,” Dadson mentioned, speaking about his option to ship them to Ghana, the place it’s attainable to use for citizenship based mostly on descent. “I didn’t need my youngsters to stay trapped.”
For others, the battle extends past paperwork and regulation.
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 identification isn’t negotiable,” he mentioned.
“We’re born right here, however we belong nowhere.”
Benjamin Amoah, 44, a fisherman, mentioned three of his youngsters have reached maturity with out documentation, and an software for his sons was rejected as a result of officers thought of the household title overseas.
“What hurts most,” Amoah added, “is that their mom is Gambian, but they’re nonetheless denied.”
Although Gambian citizenship could also be acquired by way of delivery and descent, residents say navigating official processes requires documentation that many households merely don’t possess after generations of administrative exclusion.
Goals interrupted
All throughout the village, the dearth of correct paperwork has induced 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 within the 2017 West African Senior Faculty Certificates Examination. He earned a scholarship to check drugs overseas.
Years later, he has not left Ghana City.
“He had no journey paperwork,” neighborhood chief Alex Mensah defined.
Although the VDC tried to intervene on his behalf, the scenario remained unresolved. And Oddoh isn’t 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, corresponding 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 tutorial targets, describing himself as pragmatic and centered on marrying a Gambian to construct a steady future for the subsequent technology.
“My dream of changing into a medical physician ended due to a single paper,” he mentioned. “I fear my future youngsters will face the identical drawback.”
Whereas most individuals right here have confronted roadblocks, many residents say there may be one surprising exception: political participation.
A number of individuals advised Al Jazeera they’d voted in nationwide elections regardless of missing citizenship documentation, typically utilizing neighborhood attestations confirming residency.
“If we will vote,” one resident requested, “why can’t now we have Gambian IDs?”
The Impartial Electoral Fee (IEC) denied registering noncitizens.
“We don’t concern voter playing cards to noncitizens,” IEC spokesperson Pa Makan Khan advised Al Jazeera, including that it remained unclear how undocumented people may receive registration.
Throughout a city corridor assembly final 12 months, Fatou Cham, the realm’s member of parliament, raised the identical concern. “If they’re foreigners, then why are they voting?” she requested, promising to pursue an answer.
The query of belonging
Citizenship provisions in The Gambia’s Structure have modified little regardless of greater than 50 amendments over practically three many years.
A 2024 evaluation by the Gambia Fee for Refugees discovered that the majority stateless people recognized had been born domestically. Of 686 individuals assessed, solely 53 possessed Gambian passports, paperwork obtained underneath former President Jammeh’s 2014 directive.
Assistant Commissioner for Refugees Omar Camara advised 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 advised Al Jazeera that citizenship regulation stays ruled by the 1997 Structure, which bases nationality on descent.
“The Structure doesn’t grant automated citizenship solely for being born within the nation,” a ministry spokesperson mentioned.
The ministry acknowledged that neither the Structure nor the Gambia Nationality and Citizenship Act supplies automated safeguards for kids born to noncitizen or undocumented mother and father, gaps that may contribute to statelessness.
Whereas no legislative amendments have expanded eligibility, the ministry mentioned current authorized provisions supply pathways to deal with sensible challenges, together with circumstances involving expired identification paperwork.
Outdoors the immigration workplace in Kanifing, Marie Mensah gathers her papers, together with her delivery certificates and an outdated Gambian voter card, and begins the journey house.
Tomorrow, she’s going to once more wake earlier than dawn, put together her youngsters for college and encourage them to check for futures she can not assure.
For the lots of of stateless individuals in Ghana City, citizenship isn’t an summary authorized debate. It determines whether or not a baby can attend faculty, open a checking account, journey or dream past the shoreline the place generations have lived.
“We’re not asking for particular remedy,” Mensah mentioned. “We’re merely asking to exist.”
