The Portuguese government has approved the national plan to implement the Global Compact for Migration, the document adopted by 152 countries in December 2018 in Morocco. This makes Portugal one of the first countries in the world to approve a national plan to implement the Global Compact.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, the national plan is an ‘operational document’ with 97 measures, specifying the government bodies responsible for each measure and the timeline for implementation. The plan will involve almost all ministries.
The plan is organised in five main dimensions:
- Promoting safe, orderly and regular migration
- Improving the processes to organise and manage migratory flows
- Promoting and qualifying migrant reception and integration mechanisms
- Supporting connections between migrants and their home countries and projects for return
- Enhancing development partnerships with countries of origin and transit
Regarding the first dimension, the minister focused on labour migration, stating that labour migration is ‘the alternative to irregular immigration and is the alternative to unsafe migration’. Another measure in the plan would make it possible to organise residence permits in Portugal in the same way that citizenship cards are currently organised, by including on a single document the most relevant information concerning the situation of the migrant.
The minister also highlighted that the implementation of the national plan is seen by the Portuguese Government as ‘a unique opportunity’ to systematise the country’s migration policy.
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