By Lamin Njie
Students accused by the ministry of health of jumping quarantine have dismissed the claims as false, as they explained their side of the story.
“We were 52 that came together and they published the names of just 18,” one of them now quarantining at Mansea Hotel told The Fatu Network while reacting to claims by the ministry they fled.
He then quickly explained their trip: “Officials had agreed to be at the border to receive us and take us to a quarantine centre. Only for us to get to the border and found no one there, only the immigration officers.
“They clearly had all our information since there was someone back home who was acting on our behalf and was all along in communication with them. They clearly know how to get us to quarantine if they cared. And so what they did by publishing our information is wrong.”
The students arrived in the country from Saudi Araba via Dakar on July 31 on the understanding they would be quarantined. The procedure however never happened.
The ministry claims the students fled quarantine but another student whose name was published by the ministry also blasted the claims as false.
He told The Fatu Network: “All what they said is not true. We did not run away from quarantine. Our information is in all the ministries and they had agreed to come to the border to take us to the quarantine centre. We did not find anyone of them at the border and since it was Eid we went to our houses.
“We had all along been waiting for them to come and get us since they had to identify a facility and then take us there. They didn’t do any of this.
“We only met immigration at the border who told us about the quarantine and said since there was no one at the border to escort us, we should go. When we informed out our mediator about this, she told us this wasn’t our fault, rather that of the health officials.
“The immigration officials at the border in Farafenni had said we would find an escort in Brikama, and when we got there in the morning, we parked a little after the police station.
“We then started bringing out our things but we didn’t see anyone and since we do not know which facility we should go to, we then decided to go home but only after agreeing that everyone should be on the look out in case they contact us.”
