By Nyima Sillah
Gambian migrants in Qatar are in a desperate situation as they continue to suffer severe exploitation in the Middle East after they were deceived by a traveling agency with no hope to recover their money.
Ebrima Ceesay a victim explained his situation in Qatar after he was deceived by one travel agency after paying a huge sum of money to reach Qatar but all his dreams remain in limbo as he has no hope to recover his money.
The young Gambian migrant left the country in July after paying over a hundred thousand dalasis to a travel agency just to reach Qatar.
“I left The Gambia on the 2nd of July and I paid D110, 000. When I landed here, this agent never considered me. He baffled me to go to Qatar with lots of hope to recover my money within a few months which never happened. Muhammed Barry, a Gambian based in Qatar is our supervisor.
He always gives us a tough time and gives us conditions that aren’t favorable to us. He is a Gambian like us but he joins the Qatari to maltreat Gambians who are working in one of the companies.
Our problem is that we didn’t have any agreement with the company. I didn’t know that this is the particular job I am going to do here but they condition you to do it. Jobs like Laborer. You work in the hot sun and under pressure. They maltreat us, abuse our rights and the payment is very small and you cannot leave because if you want to leave, they will charge you a huge amount of money that you cannot pay.”
He explained that it is always a problem to work in Qatar when you don’t have an ID which is always a problem for them.
“There are jobs but without the ID, you cannot have the job you want and that ID should be produced by the company you work for. There are conditions which you must follow to work.
Freedom, he said, is also a problem they are facing amid suppression from the authorities.
“You pay a huge amount of money from The Gambia, you come here and work under pressure is like human exploitation. “Our passports have been collected. All Gambians based here, their passports are in their office and you cannot leave in the absence of your passport, it is like they imprisoned us,” he alleged.
The desperate migrant also alleged that the Gambian embassy in Qatar is not addressing their situation despite having lodged their complaints to the councilor.
Another victim, Kebba Sanneh, who is physically challenged also, said they went to the embassy and explained their plight but they said they could not offer any help despite the condition they are going through.
“We need help. I have been here for over three months and my visa expired yesterday. I have not been doing anything since I arrived here, I could not even secure a job because of my condition.
He continued: “The way my situation is, If I don’t leave this place, I am scared something might happen to me here. Emotionally what I am feeling here is not normal. I am afraid something might go wrong with me. At this moment, even if they offer me a job, I don’t want to. All I want is to leave this place. I just want to go back to the Gambia. I don’t want to stay even a day here.”
Hassan Bah another victim of the so-called traveling agent explained how he was deceived to pay over one hundred thousand dalasis to the same agent.
“I paid D120, 000 to my agent Muhammed Barry, some paid D130, 000, D100, 000, others D75, 000 and more. They will tell you to pay those amounts and later share them with agents in the Gambia or Qatar. We wake up at 3 am and start work at 5 am because we are far from the place we work,” said the desperate migrant.
