The ambassador of Cape Verde guarantees that, in light of the new law, there is no lack of people who want to come to work in Portugal. Eurico Correia Monteiro does not know how to quantify the number of Cape Verdeans seeking the Portuguese consular office in his country, but he is sure that there are many citizens. “These are important requests from Cape Verdean companies, but also from citizens who individually intend to enter Portuguese territory”, guarantees the ambassador.
The legislation already published allows, for example, to grant visas more easily to citizens of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) who want to come to work in Portugal.
But the ambassador says that “political will is not enough to create a law that facilitates the mobility of CPLP citizens.” It is also necessary to have human and technical resources in the consular services to deal with visa applications. And so far there has been no reinforcement of services. “It is not strange in Cape Verde that a person can spend one, two or three months waiting for an appointment [para atendimento]“, he assures. And for the analysis of visa applications, until recently there was only one person assigned to do this work at the Cape Verdean consulate. “You can imagine the workload that this represents”, emphasizes Eurico Monteiro.
Cape Verde’s ambassador to Portugal, however, praises the Portuguese law which he considers “remarkable” and stresses that his country is also amending legislation to facilitate mobility between Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP). He stresses, however, that if there is no rapid response to citizen demand, consular services can become a “blocking factor.” “If the technical and material conditions are not created in a reasonable time, the effects of what is in the law are not removed and it can have perverse effects of disbelief in the mobility project,” he criticizes.
The ambassador guarantees that both the Portuguese and Cape Verdean authorities are aware of the problem and asks for more human and technical investment from all the countries involved. “There are signs that changes are being made to the response to be more timely and meaningful, but to date we do not have this response at the desired level,” he adds.
Tourism, industry and civil construction, but also transport companies, are work areas sought after by Cape Verdeans, who in Portugal have a community of around 260,000 inhabitants.
Source: TSF
