In Ghana Town, a ‘stateless’ future for hundreds born and raised in Gambia
Published: 7/Apr/2026
Source: Al Jazeera
In a small Gambian village founded decades ago by Ghanaian fishermen, many of their descendants languish without ID documents.
By Kaddy Jawo
Ghana Town, The Gambia – As dawn breaks over Ghana Town, a fishing village along The Gambia’s Atlantic coast where hundreds of residents live without official documentation, Marie Mensah moves quickly through her morning routine: dressing her children, preparing breakfast and checking their schoolbags before walking them to the roadside.
Three of her four children – aged between six months and 10 years – attend a fee-paying private school, not by choice, but by necessity. Without national identity documents, enrolment in tuition-free public schools is nearly impossible.
“They ask for documents we don’t have,” Mensah, 30, told Al Jazeera. “So the public schools refuse them.”
From a distance, Ghana Town, about 35km (22 miles) from the capital, Banjul, looks like any village in coastal Gambia, with fishermen untangling their nets and mounting wooden boats towards the sea. But for most of the people living here, each day begins with uncertainty: the question of whether they legally belong to the only country they have ever known.
About 850 of the town’s 900 residents lack citizenship, passports, and even national identification, according to the Village Development Committee (VDC), which oversees community matters in the town.
Ghana Town was founded in the late 1950s by 10 Ghanaian fishermen who sailed from what was then the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to eventually settle along The Gambia’s coastline. Over the years, their families grew. More people were born and raised here, learning local languages and forming a close-knit community. But even though this is the only home they have ever known, most of the descendants of the original fishermen remain trapped in a legal grey zone.
According to Gambian law, a person born to non-Gambian parents is not recognised as a citizen, even if born in the country. Those who have one Gambian parent have attained official paperwork. For other residents, it has been a series of failed applications to the government.
Read further: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/7/in-ghana-town-a-stateless-future-for-hundreds-born-and-raised-in-gambia