Remittances from Cape Verdean workers to Portugal amount to almost 100 million euros per year.

Remittances from Cape Verdean workers to Portugal amount to around 100 million euros a year, the African country’s Minister of Communities, Jorge Santos, told Luce on Sunday.

“Right now, just from Portugal to Cape Verde, the financial transfers are large. Within the geography of our diaspora, Portugal is the country that transfers the most resources to Cape Verde, reaching a very significant amount: more than almost 10 million contos Cape Verdeans, that is, something around 100 million euros,” said a Cape Verdean official.

This weekend, Jorge Santos completed a working visit to Portugal to establish contacts with Portuguese companies and Cape Verdean workers as part of the labour mobility agreement between Cape Verde and Portugal.

“Portugal leads the list. In second place we have the United States, in third place France and so on,” he specified, also referring to money transfers sent from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Jorge Santos added that worldwide, remittances from the Cape Verdean diaspora amount to between 320 and 375 million euros, which represents almost 50% of the Cape Verdean state budget.

Asked whether recent changes made by the Portuguese government to the visa system could trigger the application of the bilateral agreement on labour mobility, Jorge Santos said no.

“We have always understood that the agreement on labour mobility will be and will remain a positive opportunity for our countries and, in particular, for Cape Verde for workers and youth,” he stressed.

Currently in Cape Verde there are “many thousands of unemployed young people and many thousands of young people looking for vocational training, and therefore this labour agreement allows us to create and take advantage of the opportunities” created by Portugal.

Jorge Santos also stressed that the agreement on labour mobility allows anyone leaving Cape Verde for Portugal to have a valid employment contract.

“Previously, there was a request for a visa to find a job. Without any imposition of an employment contract. Then, yes, there may be some adaptation, but we also agree with this measure, since it introduces some control and makes the mechanisms for monitoring the process more flexible,” he emphasized.

The Cape Verdean minister also cited as an example that, under a bilateral agreement on labour mobility, 6,300 Cape Verdeans will arrive under labour contracts in 2023.

“This year, so far, according to the Cape Verde Common Visa Application Centre and the Portuguese Embassy in Cape Verde, 3,600 work visas have already been processed,” he added.

Demand is high, but Portugal, he acknowledged, “has also made efforts to improve the conditions at the Single Visa Application Centre, as well as at its embassy in Praia, to meet the many requests and demands.”

Regarding the contacts he maintained in Portugal with companies that hire workers from Cape Verde, Jorge Santos singled out Barraqueiro in particular.

“For example, in Barraqueiro alone there are hundreds of drivers who have come here to work, whether in the Lisbon metropolitan area, or in the Porto metropolitan area, another 100 drivers who are about to arrive, the visa process is in the preparation phase,” he said.

Jorge Santos also praised the companies’ efforts to create conditions for accommodation and family reunification.

“In other words, there is also a social meaning here, connected with the issue of mobility, which I must also say and be satisfied with, that is, there is responsibility,” observing the provisions of the employment contract signed by the ministries of employment of the two countries.

“I mean that the worker comes, but he must be provided with conditions in terms of social security, in terms of protection, all the security that is also guaranteed to Portuguese workers,” he stressed.