Portuguese consulate in Luanda with “superhuman effort” for thousands of requests – Observer
The Portuguese ambassador to Angola said this Friday that there is a “greater pressure from more Angolans” who want to travel to Portugal and consulate officials make a “superhuman effort” to respond to thousands of visa applications.
According to Francisco Francisco, requests from passengers for many Portugal visas coming from Luanda, requests for many visas and from passengers coming from Luanda, are requests for many visas in Portugal and there are passenger flights coming from Portugal.
Because, there is an aspect that has to do with the recovery of the delay that existed at the time of the pandemic and it is also true that there is a greater pressure from the more Angolan past that wants to travel to Portugal, in relation to the flow, that is, we noticed a greater de”, said the ambassador.
Speaking to the audience granted to him by the president of the National Assembly of Angola, Carolina Cerqueira, the diplomat said that the consulate general in Luanda is currently the largest issuer of visas in the entire Portuguese diplomatic network.
And it has been almost superhuman on the part of its employees to respond to many visa requests for Portugal, as I said many visas, aspects that need to be improved, yes, without a doubt, we are ready to do so”, he stressed.
“The Minister of Foreign Affairs already addressed the issue, here the Secretary of State for Communities, here several members of the government, measures were introduced in terms of strengthening human beings”, he recalled.
For Francisco Duarte, who responds to Lusa about the delay in issuing visas for Portugal, will also be necessary technological resources to respond to requests.
“And now, within the scope of the visa facilitation protocol, we are also working towards making it even more agile, but this is a bilateral, reciprocal flow”, he stressed.
The visa facilitation mechanism must be reciprocal, he argued, because Portuguese companies in need of “workers for specific functions” in Angola, he added: “Sometimes I also hear”.
“But a mutual in order to improve this issue, I am confident that this will happen, we are working towards it”, he assured.
alleged schemes for Luanda Survival, but not seen at the consulate.
“So it’s true that I sometimes hear about it, but do you have concrete evidence? Knows? If you know that someone concretely tasted me, he replied to journalists.
With Carolina Cerqueira, the Portuguese ambassador addressed the bilateral issue around three axes, with the mobility of people being the first topic of the audience, the first topic of the audience, in Luanda.
For Francisco Duarte, the issue of mobility “is an absolutely central aspect” of the relationship between the two countries: “We are moving towards a new paradigm resulting from the CPLP Mobility Agreement and all the measures we are going to take to facilitate the flow of people in the directions”.
Regarding the implementation of the Mobility Agreement of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), already ratified by the Member States, the diplomat said that “there are still aspects to be finalized” for its functionality.
[Há] The country that several times according to the legislation must agree with the legislation to materialize this, and the cases also according to the cause of bilateral agreements of the categories that should be allowed to review, each case must not be agreed by law.
“This is being worked on and there will be news soon, but it’s not the time for me to announce it yet”, he said.
Asked if Brussels has been an obstacle to the mobility of the CPLP, the diplomat replied: “I wouldn’t say an obstacle, we don’t talk about the obstacles of visible duration adjusted because we are part of the Schengen Agreement”.
“Therefore, the issue of sovereignty being authorized, we cannot work here that can be done, namely it cannot be possible for long-stay visas and to the greatest extent what can be allowed”.
Francisco Duarte also believes that the regularization of the CPLP Mobility Agreement has already responded to the problem of applying for visas in Portugal.
“Will, give [resposta]. This week, an important meeting, in Lisbon, on the 19th, on the protocol for facilitating events and now new ones will be given in terms of legislation and all the steps of all these steps ”, he replied to Lusa.
He also admitted that implementing the mobility agreement will be a major challenge for Portugal, because its temporary consular services with a “brutal increase” in visa applicationswork, however, work.
“This is a great challenge, I don’t hide it is difficult, but it is our obligation to oblige it and we will work for it obligation, I will not go that it is easy, it is not easy because there is really a lot of pressure”, he maintained.
But, “our will is to respond to the simple fact that there is this brutal increase in the order of a higher and higher is the sign that the will is there, about that there is no doubt not you.
The strategic cooperation between Carolina Cerqueira and Portugal and the strategic cooperation program between Portugal’s cooperation and cooperation program and the meeting between Portugal and Francisco Francisco Duarte.
Carolina Cerqueira is president of the National Assembly of Angola for the 2022-2027 legislature, which emerges from the August 24 general elections, which elected 220 deputies.
Francisco Duarte also said he congratulated the president of the Angolan legislative body, who will travel to Lisbon next week, where he is participating in the CPLP parliamentary assembly.
I had the opportunity to say that we count on all his experience and political weight to, within the framework of this new legislature, carry out a work that we Portugal have as a friendly country that we consider very important”, concluded the Portuguese ambassador.