Statelessness is becoming an increasing concern to authorities in Africa. Everyday, thousands of people are on the move and some of these people are without required proper national documents.
This has not only put the lives of these individuals at great danger, but also pose serious challenges to authorities especially in ascertaining their countries of origin.
In this day and age, it is only documents that guarantee one's origin.
Statelessness or the situation of not being recognised as a citizen by any country, affects millions of people around the world.
And in most cases stateless people cannot often access the most basic of rights, including being able to go to school, work legally, access health services, marry, or even register the birth of a child.
The Gambia government recently introduced the issuance of mass electronic birth registration and Health Insurance Cards. This electronic birth certificate will replace the old one's in use.
It is therefore incumbent on all eligible Gambians to go in for these documents.
Many would attest to the fact that our national documents during the past years were misused and fall into the hands of those who don't deserve it.
abused and missed by foreigners.
Therefore, the requirement for one to get these documents, especially the electronic birth certificate should not just be any other document.
Let's remember that national documents such as birth certificates and identity cards are valuable assets that need to be safeguarded at all cost.
It is therefore incumbent on all to jealously safeguard our documents from unscrupulous individuals, who want to take this as an opportunity to clandestiny acquire our documents through the backdoor.
The root causes of statelessness are diverse and complex. In some circumstances it could result from movement of families especially during armed conflicts or fear of persecution in one country, among others. Some are as a result of denying citizenship to a particular group in a country.
But what is important is that no individual should ever be subjected to the insecurity and distress of not being able to turn to any government for protection.
