The director-general of the International Organization for Migration warned yesterday of the need to prevent the CPLP mobility agreement from becoming an 'open door' policy, otherwise there will be a rise in the far right.

"The agreement cannot be an 'open door' policy," said António Vitorino at the Diplomatic Seminar, which has been taking place in Lisbon since yesterday, responding to a question raised by a Portuguese diplomat in Luanda.

According to the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the agreement "must be applied with caution" since "an 'open door' policy is the ideal recipe for the growth of the extreme right".

As an example, António Vitorino highlighted the situation in Nigeria, where estimates predict that the resident population will reach the numbers in the United States by 2050.

"Does anyone believe that 200 million jobs will be created in Nigeria by 2050?" asked the IOM director-general, in reference to the potential tensions caused by the pressure that the growth in migrants will put on the country's labor market.

To fully implement the mobility agreement, "we need to ensure that people who go to other countries have opportunities in the labor market," he said.

On the other hand, migrants leaving African countries for Europe continue to come up against a barrier, he said.

"We live in a state of denial: we don't want more migrants, but we need them," said the IOM director, pointing out that most of the population in Africa is under 18, while Europe is getting older and older.

The Agreement on Mobility between the Member States of the CPLP was signed on July 17, 2021, in Luanda, during the 13th Conference of Heads of State and Government of the CPLP.

The agreement aimed to facilitate mobility between member states of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) by adopting a simpler visa regime.

"Dialogue between countries of origin and countries of destination is essential" for the implementation of the agreement, defended António Vitorino, warning that African migratory pressure will continue.

The CPLP Mobility Agreement establishes a "framework for cooperation" between all member states in a "flexible and variable" way and, in practice, covers any citizen.

States are offered a range of solutions that allow them to take on "commitments arising from mobility in a progressive way and with different levels of integration", taking into account their own internal specificities, in their political, social and administrative dimensions.

The CPLP includes Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor.

On the past 30th the new regime for the entry of immigrants into Portugal came into force, which foresees a facilitation in the issuing of visas for citizens from the CPLP, in the scope of the Agreement on Mobility between Member States.

According to the decree, CPLP citizens can obtain a visa to look for work or a CPLP residence visa, and are exempt from presenting valid travel insurance, proof of means of subsistence, a copy of their return ticket and an in-person visa application.