Alumni in Focus

Mr. Jarju

Mr. Jarju, Immigration Department of The Gambia

Mr. Jarju during the Fraudulent Documents Course at the RTC - March 2018

We love to highlight the numerous successes of our alumni, as further validation of the success of the RTC program. This month, we are happy to feature the story of Mr. Jarju from The Gambia, who had the opportunity to participate in our Fraudulent Documents and International Land Border Interdiction course. Let’s hear what he has to say!

I joined The Gambia Immigration department in October 2008. I have served in my current organization for the past 9 years. In 2016, I was promoted to the rank of an inspector. I attended Basic Document Fraudulent Detection Training in 2010 in The Gambia, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security - Regional Security Office. In 2017, I attended another training in Italy on Border Police Techniques for Gambia Immigration Officers. I was happy to build on my knowledge and experience gathered from these trainings.

In March 2018, I was nominated to participate in a similar course on Fraudulent Documents and International Land Border Interdiction at the West Africa Regional Training Center (RTC). The knowledge gained has helped a lot in the area of document verification.

Mr.Jarju with the instructor team from CBP AND ICE - March 2018

On April 04 2018, the Gambian Immigration Department received information via the Gambian Embassy in Malaysia to verify the authenticity of two Gambian passports seized in Malaysia from two individuals

I conducted digital checks on the passport numbers and dates of birth via the MRZ systematic procedure learned from the training and obtained inaccurate results. After further examination, I was able to identify that the passports seized were fraudulent.

I contacted the commanding officer of the Gambian passport production Unit and confirmed that the two individuals were not the original owners of the passports and that the passports were obtained via fraudulent means. The suspects have been handed over to the intelligence unit for further investigation.   

The RTC Director congratulates Mr. Jarju during the graduation ceremony -March 2018

The original owners of the passports were invited to the Gambian Immigration Department for further interrogation. I reported the findings to the Gambian Embassy in Malaysia and later forwarded to the Malaysian Government. I’m thankful for the RTC training, which has given me practical skills to enhance my law enforcement career.

Please continue sharing your successes with us- we love hearing them. Send us an email at info@westafricartc.org and we’ll get the conversation going.