By Bakary Jaiteh - Lamin Village
A major corruption racket has been unveiled at the Banjul International Airport, where Customs and Immigration agents extort bribes, imposing illegal airport fees, harassment of visitors and in some instances stealing passenger luggage, revealed competent aviation sources. While there is no independent report linking the Customs and Immigration agents into the constant disappearances of passenger luggage, sources say the airport security pays little or no attention to customer properties. That Customs and Immigration agents spent most of their time demanding money and clothing from visitors coming into this country. Travelers who refused to dash these security agents with couple of dollars are exposed to an unfinished airport screening and delaying tactics. Some passengers have no choice but to meet the demands of the Customs and Immigration agents to avoid missing their flights, our sources added.
Travelers from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America are often greeted with hostile reception by the Airport Security. The visitors are sometimes make to wait for hours before they could be attended by the Customs and Immigration agents. The airport security has been accused of acting extra-judicially by exposing travelers into horrible experiences each time they landed in Banjul.
There is a dark room at the luggage shorting station. Passengers complained about systematic harassment in the hands of Gambia’s security agents. They say airport security officials including the customs and the Immigration extort money from them.
One of the passengers who spoke to the Freedom Newspaper said she was made to pay extra fee for her merchandize which was bound for the United Kingdom. She says corruption is endemic at Gambia’s Airport. She says the personnel of the customs and Immigration have no regard for the security of travelers but were only interested in lining their own pockets.
The concerned passenger said she was detained at the said dark room for no just cause. She says the Immigration stopped her goods from leaving the country, on the grounds that she never secured the relevant paperwork to enable the transportation of her goods.
The passenger said she was later compelled to pay D200 dalasis without any receipt issued to her. When she protested about the lack of transparency at the airport, she was handed to the police. She was later released by the police. She was told that in order to avoid delays at the airport, she should dish out some money to the officers at the counter. This according to the police would help to save passengers from unnecessary screening.
It’s now a tradition at the airport that all visitors must pay at least $20 dollars to the Immigration. The said funds are goes into the pockets of corrupt officials, said our source.
A lady who prefers anonymity said her passport was with the Immigration for the two weeks. She just arrived into the country from her native country Liberia. She said she had to give them only $10 in order to have her passport back.
Other passengers also expressed similar complaints. They say several thousands of dollars goes into corrupt airport security officials every year.
An Immigration agent tells the Freedom Newspaper that the corruption racket was a well coordinated one. “ Our superiors are involved in this scheme. We collect the money and hand it over to them. Most of the funds collected from passengers don’t go into Government coffers. The airport is the quickest place to get money.“ he said
Contacted for comments, an official of the Civil Aviation remarked” Stealing has been a major problem in this airport. We also received horrible feedbacks from our passengers regarding the conduct of our airport security. This airport would be a nice place to transit if our Customs and Immigration officials stopped harassing visitors. Begging is becoming rampant here. We hope the relevant authorities will take action to address this problem. The image of our airport has been destroyed because of some selfish and corrupt security officials.”