The Gambia government has rejected calls to publish the list of diplomatic passport holders following allegations in Senegal that former president Macky Sall’s family and ex-ministers were among the beneficiaries.

A report from Senegal last week claimed that 20,000 diplomatic passports had been issued to Sall’s relatives and former ministers.

The Gambian government dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and said publishing the list of passport holders would breach data privacy laws.

“As a government, we act in accordance with the law. We cannot release people’s private details. Those are third-party privacy issues — no country does that, and it is not in line with our laws,” Information Minister Dr Ismaila Ceesay told The Standard newspaper.

He explained that the government had already disclosed the total number of diplomatic passports issued and would not go further.

“We now have a data privacy law in The Gambia, so we cannot just release people’s names publicly in the name of transparency. That would go against international practice,” Dr Ceesay said.

However, he added that anyone seeking disclosure of specific information could do so through the Access to Information Act, provided the request does not fall under exempted categories.