Backway to Europe
Building a Gambia Worth Staying For
THE ISSUE
For decades now, The Gambia has been losing her most vital resource; her youthful population. In villages and towns across the nation, the same story repeats itself: a son who never came home, a daughter whose phone number stopped working, a family living in the shadow of uncertainty.
These are not isolated tragedies, they are part of a vast, ongoing national disaster; a crisis that has claimed thousands of Gambian lives across the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea. These silent disappearances have, over the decades, led to a slow, invisible bleeding of our future young generation.
The National Builders Party (NBP) classified this backway to Europe as a desperate and often deadly migration issue that could have been resolved through carefully studied measures but instead ended up a failure on the national level. It is the byproduct of decades of neglect, political uncertainty, underdevelopment, a lack of hope and a lack of economic and social opportunities at home.
When a nation cannot offer its people dignity, work, or hope, desperation becomes the currency of survival.
The Roots of the Exodus
Gambian youth have not left simply because of adventure or curiosity, they left because life at home became unbearable; they left because their education did not lead to employment, the economy offered no clear path to prosperity, corruption, political exclusion, and inefficiency in the Gambia government.
The result of an atmosphere of endless poverty and desperation has been devastating. Thousands have taken the extremely dangerous “backway,” entrusting their lives to traffickers who treat human lives as cargo. They have been beaten, enslaved, and sold in Libya’s shadow markets. Some have died nameless in the desert; others have been swallowed by the Mediterranean Sea, and some have even been buried in unmarked graves in foreign lands across the heartless Sahara Desert.
In Europe, some survivors face another kind of death; one of invisibility. They survive in the margins of a foreign economy, sleeping on park benches, working without papers and enduring humiliation for a dream that has turned to dust and nightmares.
Meanwhile, back home in the Gambia, communities are left without their strongest and most capable members. Skilled farmers are disappearing; trained electricians, masons, and carpenters are all disappearing. Even young mothers and fathers, driven by hopelessness, leave their children behind in pursuit of uncertain salvation. In some cases, mothers take their vulnerable children with them, facing an uncertain and oftentimes devastating pitiful end. Who knows what those young Gambian children lost to the Sea could have become?
- In 2024, the EU observed a 100% increase on the Western African route, which includes The Gambia.
- Informal employment accounts for 81% of total employment in The Gambia.
- Over 46,000 children in The Gambia are still out of school as of 2023.
- The share of youth aged 15-35 neither in education, employment nor training (NEET) remains high at 41.3% in 2025.
- Between March and June 2025, more than 4,000 Gambian migrants departed the country for irregular migration routes, a good number of whom will never arrive or realize their dream.
- In the first eleven months of 2025, the Gambian Immigration Department (GID) intercepted over 2,041 people attempting irregular migration, including 21 pregnant women and 77 minors.
- Reports estimate that over 35,000 Gambians arrived in Europe via irregular means between 2015 and 2022.
- In the same timeframe, the proportion of Gambians facing food insecurity tripled to 27%, a key driver of migration pressure.
- Young men constitute the majority of those making the dangerous migration journey from The Gambia.
While these statistics are striking, they are an underestimate of actual Gambians lost due to the lack of consistent reporting in recent years. This mass exodus is a direct relation to the heartbeat of our economy. The backway to Europe epidemic has robbed our nation of its youth, strength, and creativity and as well eroded the very foundation of our future as a nation.
The truth is simple and painful: where there is no vision, the people perish; and where there is no hope, the people risk their lives to escape. Over the years, these giant tentacles of poverty have been slowly but firmly gripping the Gambian youth, and no concerted government effort has been devoted to resolve the cause of the problem.
OUR PLAN
The National Builders Party was established with the sole purpose of solving his crisis; not to mourn it, but to end it.
The NBP understands that migration cannot be stopped by fences or fear. It can only be stopped by hope; real tangible hope, measurable hope that transforms lives and communities for the better.
The solution lies in transforming The Gambia into a nation that works for all its people, where no citizen feels compelled to risk their life for the chance to survive. Our mission is to build a country that stands as a beacon of progress and pride for its citizens and for all of Africa to copy from.
To achieve this, NBP will act on the following interlocking fronts that address the structural causes of emigration while cultivating a national culture of purpose and productivity.
- The NBP to Rebuild the National Economy from the Ground Up
At the heart of the migration crisis, lies a lack of opportunity. The NBP will re-engineer the Gambian economy to serve its citizens first, using the concept of “productive independence”; meaning that the essentials of life, from food to housing to energy, are created and owned by Gambians.
Key steps include:
- Industrial Hubs and Special Economic Zones: The NBP will establish industrial parks in strategic locations; Brikama, Barra, Soma, and Basse; to attract local and international investors in agro-processing, manufacturing, and logistics.
- Agricultural Revolution: Through modernization of farming, irrigation and processing, agriculture will become a profitable and dignified career for youth and not a last resort.
- The Gambian Export Initiative: Focused on creating export-ready small industries, particularly in rice production, peanut-based products, fish processing, textiles, household items, building materials and digital services which would generate income and provide employment.
- Microfinance and Business Incubation: The government will partner with local banks and councils to provide low-interest startup capital, especially for youth and women, with mentorship programs and accountability systems.
- Investment in the tourism sector: Just like in the United Arab Emirate, Thailand, Miami Florida, Myrtle Beach South Carolina and other renowned tourism destinations, the NBP will develop a masterplan to transform the Gambia into one of the most desirable travel destinations in West Africa thereby leading to thousands of employment opportunities for the youth.
When young Gambians can earn a living wage and see progress in their own lives, migration will no longer appear to be the only route to success.
- Education and Skill Transformation
Our education system must stop producing job seekers and start producing job creators.
The NBP will establish the Future Builders Education Reform, guided by three principles:
- Relevance: Every level of education must prepare students for a real economic role; through vocational training, digital literacy, and entrepreneurship.
- Accessibility: Free and fair access to quality education, from primary to tertiary must be guaranteed, including scholarship programs and regional technical institutes.
- Relevance: Every level of education must prepare students for a real economic role; through vocational training, digital literacy, and entrepreneurship.
- Teach the young to stay home and refuse the backway urge: The NBP shall include learning materials that would center on the issue of illegal migration and the devastating consequences that come with such journeys. The young would be taught to love their land and must be molded to be future national builders and not runaway sons and daughters.
The Europeans built Europe, the Chinese built China, the Americans built the US and therefore the Gambians will build the Gambia come rain come shine.
As part of this endeavor, the NBP will include Migration Awareness Education in the national curriculum starting from grade 5-12. Young people will learn the realities of the “backway to Europe”; the statistics, the testimonies, the dangers, and the lost dreams so they can make informed decisions grounded in truth and not mere illusion.
- Restore National Dignity and Hope
Migration is not only an economic decision; it is a psychological one. It reflects a loss of faith in one’s own country. The NBP’s mission is to rebuild that faith through visible progress such as mass investment in infrastructure, transparent governance that earns trust, and national programs to restore pride in the country.
To that end, the NBP will:
- Launch “Stay and Build” campaigns through national radio, TV, and social media, celebrating success stories of young Gambians thriving at home.
- Create National Youth Service Programs, where graduates contribute to nation-building through civic work, infrastructure, and agriculture; earning stipends, training, and experience.
- Enforce anti-corruption laws to ensure that public funds serve the public interest, not private greed.
- Invest in urban renewal and affordable housing so that living in The Gambia becomes both dignified and desirable.
The NBP envisions a Gambia where the phrase “I’m staying” becomes a statement of pride, not resignation.
- Reintegration and Human Restoration
Thousands of Gambians have already gone abroad; some voluntarily returning, others deported, and many stranded. They deserve more than pity; they deserve a pathway back to dignity.
The NBP will establish a National Reintegration and Empowerment Agency (NREA) to support returning migrants through:
- Counseling and Trauma Recovery; addressing the emotional toll of their journey.
- Vocational Training and Certification; recognizing skills learned abroad and channeling them into productive local industries.
- Business Start-up Packages; offering grants and loans for reintegration projects.
- Community-Based Reintegration Networks; pairing returnees with local mentors and civic groups for social and economic support.
The NBP believes every Gambian who returns home can become a builder of the new Gambia; a living testimony that leaving the country is not the only path to a better life.
- International Cooperation on Equal Terms
While the NBP acknowledges the humanitarian role of European nations in rescue operations, we reject the long-standing imbalance in migration agreements that treat African nations as holding centers rather than equal partners.
NBP diplomacy will prioritize fair, dignified cooperation, where aid and migration policy are linked to economic empowerment, skill exchange, and sustainable development and not dependency through sporadic handouts.
OUR VISION
A Gambia Worth Coming Home To
Imagine a Gambia where every youth has a purpose. A system that rewards hard work, innovation, and honesty. A nation whose progress is measured not by the number of people leaving, but by the number returning to build.
This is not an impossible dream, it is a question of leadership, of courage, accountability and vision. The National Builders Party is prepared to make that vision real. Because when hope returns, migration ends. The NBP will build the Gambia they once dreamed of abroad, right here at home.
