PORTUGAL QUESTIONS ON RESETTLING CUBAN MIGRANTS

UNCLAS LISBON 000046

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR PRM:RGEHRING

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF PREL PGOV PO
SUBJECT: PORTUGAL QUESTIONS ON RESETTLING CUBAN MIGRANTS

REF: LISBON 019


1. This cable is unclassified and can be shared with UNHCR or
other interested agencies.


2. Embassy Lisbon officers met January 9 with Portuguese MFA
officials regarding Cuban migrants. Portuguese President
Cavaco Silva announced at UNGA last September that Portugal
has doubled the number of asylum-seekers it would accept
annually, and we wished to explore whether this would create
an opening for accepting Cuban migrants from Guantanamo. We
also sought to clarify what appeared to be institutional
confusion among Portuguese ministries with overlapping
responsibility for the issue.


3. The Portuguese officials explained that Cavaco Silva's
UNGA announcement had been misinterpreted: Portugal is not
doubling its refugee number from 30 to 60 next year, but
rather had already doubled it from 15 to 30 last year. These
thirty are dedicated to UNHCR cases. Apart from those
thirty, asylum-seekers may make their claims in two ways: by
requesting asylum at a Portuguese port of entry; or by making
a prima facie case at a Portuguese consulate in order to
obtain a humanitarian visa for the purpose of coming to
Portugal and filing a formal claim. The claim must be filed
by the individual claimant, and no institution or government
can file it on their behalf. The Portuguese Interior
Ministry seeks input from the MFA and makes decisions on each
of these individual cases. If the request is approved, the
claimant obtains either a two-year or five-year residency
permit (depending on whether they partially or fully meet the
refugee criteria) as well as resettlement assistance. The
thirty individuals accepted via UNHCR channels have an easier
bureacratic road, with some of the steps being waived, the
Portuguese officials explained. The number of refugees
accepted outside of the thirty UNHCR cases is "in the low
hundreds".


3. As we explained the US government interest in securing
resettlement of Cuban migrants at Guantanamo, the Portuguese
officals asked for more detailed information to inform their
thinking. Specifically, they asked a) for more detail on the
individual cases that Portugal might be asked to consider; b)
whether their cases had already been reviewed by UNHCR (if
so, what happened; if not, why not); and c) what sort of
travel documents/arrangements were in place when other
countries have accepted Cuban migrants. Post would greatly
appreciate responses to these questions that we can share
with the GOP. We were pleasantly surprised by their interest
in continuing this discussion.
STEPHENSON