The eight (8) Ghanaian migrants, who were allegedly shot dead by the Gambian Police, are said to be victims of ?connection men', who extort huge sums of money from prospective migrants under the pretext of taking them to Italy.
According to Ghana's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Kwesi Osei Agyei, a lot of such people fall victim to these unscrupulous men, who try to smuggle the migrants across the high seas on boats, to Italy for greener pastures. The bodies of the eight men who could not be identified were found scattered around ?Ghana-Town' located in the North of Banjul and were believed to be between the ages of 30 and 40. A Ghanaian resident in ?Ghana-Town', Mr. Kwesi Obed told PeaceFM on phone this morning that victims were picked in pairs in pick-ups and were never returned during the operations by the police. Two of the survivors fought with the police and escaped back to ?Ghana-Town' according to our source. There were various sums of money found in the pockets of the dead men which were in various currencies amounting to over 600euros
Meanwhile Ghana's deputy foreign minister, who confirmed the incident on PeaceFM today said his Ministry has instructed Ghana's Consulate in Senegal to investigate the cause of the incident and submit a full report.
Mr. Osei Agyei used the opportunity to reiterate his call on prospective migrants not to engage the services of ?connection men' but expose them to the authorities for action to be taken against them.