FURTHER ON PORTUGAL'S CONSIDERATION OF CUBAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L LISBON 000065


DEPT FOR PRM:RMACKLER AND RGEHRING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2019
TAGS: PREF PREL PGOV PO
SUBJECT: FURTHER ON PORTUGAL'S CONSIDERATION OF CUBAN
MIGRANTS

REF: A. LISBON 0019

B. RMACKLER/RREITER 26JAN09 EMAIL EXCHANGE


Classified By: POL/ECON COUNSELOR RICHARD REITER, FOR 1.4 B, D.


1. (C) On January 29, DCM and Pol/Econ Counselor met a second
time with Rui Macieira, Deputy PolDir for Security Issues at
the Portuguese MFA. This meeting followed up our Jan. 9
discussion (ref A) of the possibility of Portugal accepting
for resettlement Cuban migrants currently at Guantanamo. We
provided Macieira the non-paper provided by PRM (ref B) and
background information on the eight migrants currently
available for resettlement.


2. (C) Macieira provided the following responses to our
questions:

- the two-year and five-year residency permits that Portugal
grants to asylees are/are renewable or convertible to
permanent residency, depending on whether the individual's
fear of persecution remains in effect and/or whether he
wishes to remain in Portugal. Asylees are granted the right
to work. After five years, asylees have the option of
naturalizing as Portuguese citizens;

- Macieira requested that news of Portuguese consideration of
Cuban migrants not be shared with UNHCR at this time, as the
GOP's thinking is still internal and not fully-developed.


3. (C) Macieira shared Portugal's recent asylum numbers:

Requests for Asylum Cases Approved
2006 128 30
2007 224 30
2008 161 81

As noted in ref A, Portugal accepts 30 cases from UNHCR each
year. In 2006-2007, it did not approve any cases except
those referred by UNHCR. Last year it approved 51 outside of
UNHCR, including some from Malta and a large extended Iraqi
family.


4. (C) Macieira welcomed the detailed information we provided
and said consideration of the issue is proceeding at a high
level in the MFA, both at the general level of whether this
is something Portugal wants to become involved with, and
specifically on modalities. We take it as a positive that
the GOP has not yet said "no", but neither have they
expressed much enthusiasm. We will await Macieira's response
and stand ready to answer further Portuguese questions as
they arise.


STEPHENSON