DISCLAIMER

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

A Gambian resident in the United States has on June 27, 2008 sent a fax message to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration Department (UDI), Asylum Department claiming that The Gambia Echo’s Editor-In Chief, Ebrima G. Sankareh purportedly wrote it. In the letter, the impersonator claimed that a Gambian currently seeking political asylum was Editor Sankareh’s brother and was seeking asylum after he was accused of sourcing our stories.

We want to make it categorically clear that the letter is fictitious and that neither do I have a brother in Norway nor do I have any reporter who has ran afoul of the Jammeh regime in Norway. We have already communicated with the Norwegian authorities through Mr. Christian Øhren Nordset, Senior Executive Officer of The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), Asylum Dept. who contacted us during their investigations. As the investigations are in progress, we have decided to withhold the culprits’ names and hope that with this information, potential impostors will learn a lesson that identity theft is criminal and that using and stealing a newspaper’s stationary to engage in such activities is utterly criminal.

 

In the past, we have worked with genuine asylum seekers with notarised affidavits bearing our paper’s logo and we will continue to support genuine Gambians and non-Gambian asylum seekers alike. What we cannot do is to allow people to use our name and engage in reprehensible criminal behaviours.

 

Below is the letter from the UDI. We have replaced the culprits’ names with Mr. “X”.

 

“To Mr. Ebrima Sankareh, editor in chief of "The Gambia Echo".

 

We are contacting you in connection with Mr.X’s application for asylum in Norway. The applicant has stated that you are his brother.

 

We have received a fax 27. June 2008, presumably from you, stating that Mr.X is your brother. It would be of interest to The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) if you could confirm, by e-mail, whether or not the information given to us by this applicant is correct.

 

Furthermore, it would be much appreciated if you could give a brief description of your brother's involvement with The Gambia Echo.

- Has he worked as an informant for your online newspaper while living in The Gambia?   

- What kind of information has he brought forth?

- In what way is your brother able to find information that is of interest to The Gambia Echo?

 

Your quick response would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,   

 

Mr. Christian Øhren Nordset

Senior Executive Officer

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), Asylum Department

 

 

Christian Øhren Nordset
Førstekonsulent
e-mail: chno@udi.no

 

Utlendingsdirektoratet (UDI), Asylavdelingen 
Postboks 8108 Dep, 0032 Oslo
Telefon: 23 35 15 00   www.udi.no

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), Asylum Department
P.O. Box 8108 Dep, N-0032 Oslo, Norway 
Telephone: +47 23 35 15 00 www.udi.no

 

P Redd et tre - ikke skriv ut denne e-posten med mindre det er nødvendig!”