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Prince
507 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Sep 2011 : 04:10:24
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It appears that senior Gambian Opposition figures are profiteering from "being in the Opposition." With this kind of behavior, what guarantees do we have that they would not be lining up the relatives, friends and the highest bidders with "what belongs to the majority" should they win elections?
Fraud for gains!
DEPT FOR CA/FPP
DEPT ALSO PASS TO DHS
FRANKFURT PASS TO RCO PACKOWITZ
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC GA
SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - BANJUL, MAR - AUG 2009
¶1. Embassy Banjul submits the following fraud report covering March
through August 2009. Post notes, however, that Conoff arrived only
in July 2009 and is just becoming familiar with consular work in The
Gambia.
a. COUNTRY CONDITIONS: The Gambia, the smallest country on the
mainland of Africa, relies heavily on tourism. The high tourist
season (November to April) is a time of greatly increased economic
activity since many jobs depending on the tourist trade are
seasonal. Due to the global economic downturn, the number of
tourists who visited The Gambia last year was down approximately
20%. There are fears that the upcoming season will be similarly
slow, leading to a greater desire to emigrate and seek employment
elsewhere. The Consular Section has already seen a surge in NIV
applications in August, where the number of interviews increased to
713 from 557 in 2008.
The downturn in tourism should not greatly affect ACS work. The
vast majority of tourists are European, since the hotels and beaches
here are relatively unknown and expensive to reach from the U.S.
The one event which does attract a number of Americans, the
bi-annual Roots Festival, was scheduled for earlier this year but
was postponed due to H1N1 flu fears and has yet to be rescheduled.
The Gambian government is making an effort to attract more American
tourism. Post recently issued two visas to officials going to a
series of tourism trade shows in the U.S.
The majority of American citizens in The Gambia are dual national
children with one or both parents in the U.S. As noted in the
previous fraud summary, poor economic conditions have led to
increasing requests from such citizens for financial assistance to
move to the U.S. Since they are dual nationals and have resided
here with extended family members for many years, they do not meet
the conditions necessary for repatriation loans. Yet many of these
young citizens or their family guardians are unaware of this and
believe that post will provide them with airline tickets to the U.S.......
b. NIV FRAUD: ......
Incidents of fraud are particularly high with group travel. In one
case, two Nigerians teaching in The Gambia posed as chaperones for
12 Gambians who were supposed to present a play at a UN youth
festival. The Gambians were all supposed to be high school
students, even though many were in their mid-twenties. When
questioned about the purpose of travel and the play they were
supposed to present, many were unable to state more than that they
were going to New York. Three applicants recently posed are youth
organizers for the opposition UDP party who were to accompany a
senior UDP official on a fund-raising trip to the U.S. Two of the
three spoke no English, only tribal languages and none were able to
describe their activities as youth organizers. A check in ADIS also
revealed that two of the three people who were given visas for a
similar trip last year are still in the U.S.
Another common problem is that people who qualify for visas and have
good travel records attempt to facilitate the migration of others to
the U.S. Marriage certificates are easy to obtain - a couple only
has to go the Muslim Kadi Court and declare that they are married -
coupled with the fact that a Muslim man can have up to four wives,
leads to cases in which a visa-holder marries simply to get the new
wife a visa......
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toubab1020
12306 Posts |
Posted - 13 Sep 2011 : 14:15:03
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Prince, what you have posted here is interesting although it relates to the period "MAR - AUG 2009" and not to circumstances that exist in todays Gambia,these probably cannot be accessed by those outside the consular circle,I presume that your posting was gleaned from Wikileaks and relates to US information,although you have not made that very clear
"DEPT FOR CA/FPP
DEPT ALSO PASS TO DHS
FRANKFURT PASS TO RCO PACKOWITZ"
Unless you are in the circle and have understanding of the above distrubution the words mean very little,I feel that your linkage with opposition political parties is fragile to say the least, I understand that you are unable to verify the source of this material,and yes, it probably is genuine,but dosn't really prove much.
I am a supporter of NO POLITICAL PARTY in Gambia not being a citizen and just make observations as an interested individual of things Gambian,a country that I am fond of.
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 13 Sep 2011 14:16:30 |
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shaka
996 Posts |
Posted - 14 Sep 2011 : 00:04:51
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| The whole world is aware of the ineptitude of a potential UDP government it seems except ofcourse the clamouring cronies who want to impose a king upon us at all cost. The coronation of of Dobo is not even lost to the Yanks. Prophesy! Chei Gambia!! What has been exposed by the Yanks about the UDP and its leader here is the known truth and had been consistently espoused here by many of us. |
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shaka
996 Posts |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
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