Ousman Sonko, the secretary of state for the Interior, has said that the total number of registered aliens in The Gambia for the fiscal periods 2004-2007, stands at 116,200.

The Interior secretary of state made this remark on Thursday, while answering to a question posed by the NAM for Banjul South, Hon Baboucarr Nyang, on the number of registered aliens for the fiscal year 2004-2007 respectively. The question also sought to know how many applicants were granted citizenship since the coming into force of the 1997 constitution.

The Interior SoS then gave a breakdown figure, saying "24, 450 aliens were registered in 2004, which rose to 29,692 in 2005. He added that 77 applicants were also granted citizenship by naturalisation.

In 2006, the population of aliens dropped to 26,096, but subsequently rose to 35,962 registered aliens in 2007.