The Hottest Passport in Town: Cape Verde's

By Max Coutinho

All of the sudden, we see Cape Verde’s Passports everywhere. This should not be strange if we think that Cape Verdians rank as one of the world’s top emigrants; however, when the holders of such passports are citizens stemming from Senegal, Guiné-Bissau, Angola, Ivory Coast etc…we can’t help but to wonder…

One could argue that maybe they lived in the Islands for more than a decade - yes, true but they don’t speak either Portuguese or Cape Verde Creole. They speak French (including the individuals from Guiné-Bissau). Raise your hand if you get the point. 

Cape Verde and the CPLP bloc should look into this phenomenon, specially given the recently created mobility pact - we know Portugal is keeping an eye open regarding fake passports and the Immigration Services have been arresting foreign citizens who seek to get residence permits with such documents. 

Normally, these things happen because someone tips people about such issues “Oh go to Cape Verde: there you can get documents that will then allow you to get residence in Europe…” and then Portugal, and other European nations, will realise the problem and apply pressure on Cape Verde to solve the issue - and tension starts. 

Profiling is a very useful tool in any investigation. And Portugal should have experts in Profiling in its Migration and Asylum Services because: 

• Pakistani pose as Indians

• Indians pose as Bengali

• Bengali pose as Nepali

• Nepali pose as Indians

• Bissau pose as Cape Verdians

• Conakry pose as Bissau

• Senegal pose as Gambians

• Conakry pose as Gambians

• Gambians pose as Bissau

• Angolans pose as Mozambicans

• Moroccan pose as Brazilian

• Americans pose as Canadians

• Americans pose as German

• Etc etc

However, not quite: they don’t look the same. They don’t behave the same way. They don’t speak the same way even though they may speak the same language. And their body language betrays them.

Do you know how many of such people our office has detected? There’s even one colleague who interrogates clients when they claim to be something they are not. But I digress…

Question: what do they all want here? 

(Image: Cape Verdian Biometric Passport [Ed] - Google Images)

[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society™ . © 2007-2023 Author(s) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]