On this page, you will find:
To find organisations working for LGBTQI+ rights, visit our Gambia LGBTQI+ Resources page.
For Gambia country of origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents visit our Gambia COI page.
Refugee protection
Click here to see the numbers and origins of refugees hosted by Gambia.
The following sections contain information on the most important international treaties and agreements of which Gambia is signatory, as well as national legislation relevant to the protection of refugees.
Gambia is a State party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. Gambia is also a State party to the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (the OAU Convention) and to the 2009 African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (the Kampala Convention). The Gambian Parliament has approved the accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, but Gambia has yet to deposit the instruments of accession with the relevant United Nations body. Gambia is the home to the African Commission of Human and Peoples Rights and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights studies, even though the country is yet to have its own national commission of human rights.
Gambia has adopted the Refugee Act in 2008, which created the Gambia Commission for Refugees, fully operational since 2012. The Refugee Act mandates the refugee commission to conduct the Refugee Status Determination (RSD), UNHCR being an observer.
Legal aid organisations
Address: P.O Box 1896, Banjul, The Gambia
BRUSUBI Layout # 949, Coastal Highway, The Gambia.
Tel: +220 77 51 200 /1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9
Email: ihrda@ihrda.org
The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) works to promote human rights in Africa by providing capacity building to lawyers and NGOs, particularly in relation to bringing cases before the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, serving as council on those cases, and researching and publishing on vital human rights issues.
The Institute has brought refugee cases before the African Commission. It has sent a mission of inquiry to refugee camps in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The Institute, in collaboration with the Open Society Institute Justice Initiative continues to work on these cases both in bringing them before the African Commission and more broadly raising awareness of their situation. The Institute has also sent a mission to northern Senegal to assess the situation of Mauritanian refugees there. The mission looked at the conditions in camps and studied their citizenship status. The results of the study will be reflected in advocacy before the Commission.
Following the closure of bureau in Gambia, BO Dakar in Senegal assumed responsibility for management and oversight of all activities related either to the protection of or assistance to the refugee population in the Gambia. The supervision by BO Dakar was said to allow for a more regional focus, harmonizing approaches and procedures with countries hosting the same populations of refugees. 12 BO Dakar continued to work with the established “troika” of partner organizations in the Gambia. The idea was to promote co-operation and accountability as well as build capacity, without the high financial costs associated with the presence of an in country office. This framework was maintained until early 2003 when the decision to reinstate LO Gambia was taken, resulting in LO Gambia being reopened in May 2003.
See here for the Dakar (Senegal) Office HQ for all relevant contact details and UNHCR services for Gambia.
Organisations providing other support to refugees
Website
Tel: +220 4396989/4392405/4373568
Email: redcrossgam@yahoo.com
Address: Head office, 53 Mamadi Manjang Highway
Kanifing Municipality, Ksmd
P.O. Box 472 Banjul, Gambia
The GRCS are a non-governmental organisation that is primarily engaged in humanitarian relief work who are composed of members and volunteers.
Such activities includes delivering first aid to disaster victims, health programmes immunizations and HIV/Aids, water & sanitation, information dissemination, providing vital food and medicines, shelter, disaster management and response, assisting refugees, finding missing family members etc.
The GRCS is also the major partner of the Government in all emergency relief operations being part of the taskforce of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). Their work is often coordinated with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) having been recognized by the two bodies in 1975 and 1974 respectively.
Banjul
46 Kairaba Avenue
Pipeline PMB 586, Serrekunda
Email: iombanjul@iom.int
Tel: +220 669 9596
Basse
Mansajang Kunda (Behind Fire Services)
Upper River Region
Email: iombasse@iom.int
Tel: +220 330 3150
Having established an operational presence in 2001, IOM The Gambia officially became a country office in July 2017 and implements an extensive range of programs in Migrant Protection and Assistance (MPA), including Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR), and Counter-Trafficking (CT) and Assistance to Vulnerable Migrants (AVM), as well as Communication for Development (C4D), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Immigration and Border Management (IBM), Labour Mobility and Human Development (LHD), Migration Environment and Climate Change (MECC) and Migration Health.
IOM also works closely with the Government of The Gambia to strengthen migration governance through national coordination frameworks and evidence-based policy design, particularly through research and collection and analysis of data to inform policymaking. IOM has also provided technical assistance to the Government in developing its first standalone National Migration Policy.
Address: Fajara F Section – Kombo
Tel.: +220 733 75 83 (The Gambia); +34 93 586 87 99 (Spain)
Email: wassugambia@gmail.com or wassukafo@gmail.com
Gambia LGBTQI+ Resources
Find organisations working for refugee LGBTQI+ rights in Gambia.
Gambia COI
Find Gambia Country of Origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents.
We are always looking to expand the resources on our platform. If you know about relevant resources, or you are aware of organisations and/or individuals to include in our directories, please get in touch.
Last updated May 2023