The Secretary of State for Senegalese Abroad, Amadou Chérif Diouf, has announced several key measures to enhance engagement with the Senegalese diaspora in 2025, including the upcoming establishment of a National Diaspora Day.
According to a press statement issued on Wednesday, this initiative, to be instituted by President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, aims to celebrate and promote “the individual, collective, and community initiatives of Senegalese abroad in order to generate interest.”
The day will be celebrated both in Senegal and across the country’s diplomatic and consular missions.
In terms of legal migration, Senegal plans to send 250 new seasonal workers to Spain in 2025. These recruitments will be in addition to the 99 agricultural workers from 2024, who are also expected to return to Spain. This measure is part of the circular migration promotion project, reinforced by a Memorandum of Understanding signed last August during Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Dakar.
The Senegalese government is also launching “Jariñ sa Réew” (meaning “to be useful to your country” in Wolof), an ambitious project aimed at mobilizing diaspora skills. It will allow Senegalese abroad with specialized expertise to serve their country for a fixed period, particularly in rural communities. It will begin with a pilot phase in the health and higher education sectors.
Regarding administrative modernization, a reform of consular cards is underway. The Secretariat of State is working with Synapsys, a subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), to implement a new consular identity card that will facilitate the census of Senegalese abroad.
The results of 2024 already demonstrate an intensification of actions in favour of the diaspora. The DER/FJ Diaspora Fund financed 71 projects for a total amount of 860 million CFA francs, “more than the funding for 2022 and 2023 combined,” the document notes.
This funding covered various sectors ranging from agriculture to services, impacting 17 countries across Africa, Europe, America, and Asia.
Assisting Senegalese in difficulty abroad has also been a priority.
The government carried out several repatriation operations, including 165 migrants from Libya in September, 215 from Morocco, and 117 from Lebanon in October.
A total of 3,047 voluntary repatriations were carried out in 2024, mainly from Niger, Algeria, Egypt, Chad, Tunisia, Mauritania, Ghana, and Sudan.
In the administrative field, consular services were strengthened with the organization of passport issuance missions in 32 countries, compared to 17 in 2023, making it possible to satisfy 6,675 requests.
Special missions to issue national identity cards were also conducted in several countries between October and December.
ARD/sf/te/lb/gik/APA