Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, the minister of information, has revealed that more than 3000 undocumented Gambians living in the United States are due for deportation back to the country.

Dr Ceesay’s comment comes days after U.S. President Trump issued a proposal to ban citizens from The Gambia from entering the United States unless certain security and vetting requirements are met within 60 days.

There has not yet been any reaction from The Gambia government regarding the proposed travel ban.

However, Dr. Ceesay told Coffee Timesthat there are thousands of Gambians on the waiting list for deportation from the U.S.

“The fact is that, currently, we have over 3,000 Gambians on the list to be deported to The Gambia by the American government,” he said.

He stated that the Gambian government is verifying those due to be deported to ascertain their Gambian citizenship.

“But we, as a government, need to verify whether these people are really Gambians before they can be issued travel documents,” he said, adding that the process is a bit slow due to the fact that those to be deported live in different states.

Meanwhile, he assured that the deportation would not affect Gambia-U.S relationship.

He stated: “the two governments will work together to resolve it, as has always been the case.”

By Adama Makasuba