Cape Verde will “always” activate emergency and contingency mechanisms to assist and repatriate African migrants arriving in the country, rather than establishing permanent reception centers, Inclusion Minister Fernando Elisio Freire said on Wednesday.
“Cape Verde is a different country, it is a model country and we will continue to be so,” stressed a government official speaking to the press in the city of Praia on the sidelines of the 13th Cape Verde meeting. National Immigration Council (CNI).
According to the Minister of State, Family and Social Development of Cape Verde, the National Emergency Fund will be activated to help African migrants who often arrive in the archipelago, especially on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista.
The main item on the agenda of the meeting this Wednesday was the approval of the Third Action Plan on Immigration for 2023-2025, one of the goals of which is to manage migration flows and prevent human trafficking.
The government’s actions in these cases differ from the previous proposal of the Platform of Associations of African Communities Living in Cape Verde to establish a reception center for migrants.
Also speaking to reporters, the platform’s president, José Ramos Viana, insisted that the country needs to “step up” more means and mechanisms to receive these people trying to cross the Atlantic from the West African coast.
“We are no longer talking about a reception center, but about a set of mechanisms that can be immediately activated in favor of the victims,” said the leader of the association.
The minister said the idea behind the plan is for Cape Verde to have “regular, legal and consistent” immigration, allowing for “full integration” of foreigners who make up 2.2% of the archipelago’s population, most of whom are from Guinea. -Bissau, Senegal, Nigeria, Portugal and China.
Emergency regularization, a new citizenship law and the creation of care facilities are just some of the many policy measures, in addition to the social and economic ones, highlighted by the minister, in a country that continues to “tread the path of international human trafficking.”
But he guaranteed that these people who entered the country illegally would not remain in Cape Verdean territory but would be repatriated “legally and peacefully.”
He also said that Cape Verde always wants to act in international coordination, namely with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stressing that the archipelago “cannot accept this kind of crime,” referring to illegal immigration networks.
Presenting the plan, AAI President Carmen Barros Furtando said about 30% of immigrants in the country feel discriminated against, with the minister calling for respectful treatment regardless of nationality.
The President of the Platform of African Communities Associations considered the data normal, highlighting the “very positive evolution” in the country after the extraordinary regularization of emigrants implemented last year, with the level of immigrants in a legal situation in the country standing at around 80 people. %.
“We consider this a positive development and our mission is also to monitor and promote a series of actions that can make the integration of immigrants in Cape Verde more flexible and easier, so that they do not feel discriminated against,” emphasized José Ramos Viana.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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