The Barrow government has denied signing a migration agreement with Spain to deport undocumented Gambian migrants following a closed-door meeting with the Spanish Interior minister at State House.

Ebrima Mballow , minister of Interior, told reporters that the visit of the Spanish Interior minister was to discuss bilateral relations and strengthening of ties based on a 2006 cooperation agreement between the two states.

“Migration is a global phenomenon that has been ongoing for a long time in history. Efforts geared towards tackling this global trend and impacts of migration have been ongoing. However, the government has not signed any agreement with Spain currently.”

Mballow maintained that “everyone has the right to live anywhere they want. People should also be given the opportunity to live where they want. Therefore, Spain and The Gambia have to work together to address the migration issues.”

He pointed out that the Spanish Interior Ministry were genuine partners in development in the areas of security adding that after 22 years of authoritarian rule, The Gambia’s security forces faced “a serious low capacity in equipment.”

He added that the bilateral cooperation being explored would address the issues of low equipment and logistics in strengthening the security capabilities of the country.

President Adama Barrow expressed gratitude to the Spanish government for their interest in renewing bilateral cooperation between the two countries. He advised that issues of security and migration must take into consideration matters relating to the socio-economic challenges facing The Gambia.

“Development strategies should focus on building capacities to empower youths, empower national economy for jobs creation and reduce risks of criminal activities across borders. The bilateral cooperation touches on issues of security, migration, fight against terrorism and other areas pertinent to the development of The Gambia.”

The Spanish interior minister, Fernando Grandea Marlaska Gomez, said that Spain and The Gambia were going to collaborate on training for security forces in the areas of civil protection, transnational criminal activities such as narcotic networks, terrorism and irregular migration networks which were a common concern for both countries.

“We agreed that security should not be our only area of consideration… other social and economic areas are equally important to security. If we want to get peaceful relations between Europe and Africa, we have to get into development.”