GOV’T DENIES PASSPORT SHORTAGE AS HUNDREDS STORM GAMBIAN EMBASSY IN SPAIN
By Tabora Bojang Hundreds of undocumented Gambians waited in long queues at the Gambian embassy in Madrid yesterday scrambling for Gambian papers to regularise their stay in Spain, to take advantage of that country’s pledge to grant legal status to undocumented migrants. It is estimated that between 17,000 to 25,000 Gambians live in Spain including […]
Black News 
By Tabora Bojang
Hundreds of undocumented Gambians waited in long queues at the Gambian embassy in Madrid yesterday scrambling for Gambian papers to regularise their stay in Spain, to take advantage of that country’s pledge to grant legal status to undocumented migrants. It is estimated that between 17,000 to 25,000 Gambians live in Spain including undocumented migrants.
Recently, the Gambia Immigration Department deployed a mobile enrollment team to the country to provide documentation services for Gambians.
Adama, a Gambian woman resident in Spain, told The Standard yesterday that she waited for about 12 hours with her children at the embassy before she was processed, issued a receipt and told that her passport would be ready in two to three weeks time.
According to Adama, there were only two officers responsible for processing hundreds of Gambians.
“Hundreds of people have been camping outside the embassy building since Monday. Some came from Valencia and others faraway places who cannot be coming back and forth so they decided to stay. As I am speaking, the situation is tense here. The boys are very angry because two immigration officers cannot process hundreds of people. And there are pregnant women too among us,” she explained.
According to her, the situation became tense leading to the deployment of Spanish police officers who came to help control the crowd.
GID explains
Meanwhile, the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) has dismissed any suggestions of a shortage of passport booklets in Spain. In a statement released yesterday the GID said:
“The biometric enrolment team in Spain does not have any passport booklets in their possession. Their sole mandate is to provide enrolment services. Upon completion, all passport application files processed in Spain and Italy will be printed in The Gambia. For clarity, we can confirm that there is adequate stock of biometric passport booklets in The Gambia to print all applications. Since the process began on Monday, 27th April 2026, immigration staff in Spain have been providing services with professionalism, diligence, and respect for the applicants. We acknowledge the high demand for passports in Spain, but such demand does not impede our ongoing quest to provide relevant services. We reaffirm our commitment to service, and urge all Gambians to remain in contact with the Public Relations Office to avoid misinformation and sabotage to the efforts of the government to better serve its population.”
