Cape Verde: President says free circulation of people his ‘priority’

Lisbon, Portugal – Cape Verde’s president, Jorge Carlos Fonseca, said on Friday that one of his main priorities was to ensure free circulation of people within the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).

“The great aim of our presidency is to advance significantly with our mobility plan in order to reach the objective of free circulation of people within the community,” Carlos Fonseca told journalists on the sidelines of an event held by the National Youth Conference in Estoril, near Portugal’s capital Lisbon.

“Only then will it be a community of people and citizens, rather than a community of states,” he added.

The event held by the National Youth Conference was aimed at discussing the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was attended by several CPLP representatives.

Carlos Fonseca said steps had been taken towards free circulation including a visa exemption between Angola and Cape Verde and similar agreements between Mozambique and Angola.

“We need to work in a systematic way so that at least certain groups, like students or cultural and economic agents, have free circulation in the whole CPLP area,” he added.

The CPLP is currently composed of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and East Timor.