BRITISH pensioners sporting bright red lippy and bleached blonde bobs are arriving in their droves at Banjul International Airport in The Gambia this weekend.costing as little as £529 are certainly a draw to tourists, many visitors are after something far spicier on their West African adventure.The practice is so common here that gigolos known as 'bumsters' are rife on every beach and in every bar and restaurant on the popular Senegambia Strip.
However, we found that – despite pleas for them to stay away - scores of lusty, middle-aged women were back on the hunt for muscular young men following the pandemic.Campaigners say that the popular Kololi beach resort is already swarming with women from Sweden, Russia, Germany, Holland and the UK that have only one thing on their minds.
Ali Cham, 39, plays at music venues along the notorious Senegambia Strip, where gyrating OAPs sip £1 bottles of beer and the sound of reggae music clashes with the grind of walking frames scraping against the floor. People are dying at sea in the search of a better life... Many of those left behind have little choice but to go out and look for Westerners that can support them.“For me, with my principles, it’s not something I would want to do, but there are people here that are desperate for a better life.
Ali added: “After 20 years of dictatorship, we have a democratic government that promised the youth would be given more opportunity. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the opposite. “The £1,000 they change into local currency is a lot of money here and that makes these guys want to be with them.” The man, who gave his name as Nana, said: “The biggest culprit is the huge inequality between us and the tourists.
Lamin, who runs the Tendaba Camp two hours outside Senegambia, says he has been saddened to see any increasing number of local women forced into prostitution over the last few years too. “He even asked me and I told him, ‘Sorry we don’t have prostitutes here, if you want to find one you must go somewhere else.”Social entrepreneur Olimatta Taal says Gambians have had enough of tourists dubbed ‘Dirty Sarahs’ and ‘Dirty Harrys’ coming to their country.