Portugal: State permits non-essential travel to/from Mozambique, other Portuguese-language African countries

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Portugal: State permits non-essential travel to/from Mozambique, other Portuguese-language African countries

2:58 CAT | 15 Mar 2022

File photo: Lusa

The Portuguese government has extended the possibility of non-essential travel to people from Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday.

In a statement, the government said it had approved a “change to the rules applicable to air traffic as part of measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic,” which allows travellers from these five Portuguese-language African countries (PALOP) to travel to Portugal on non-essential journeys.

Among the PALOP countries, only Equatorial Guinea is excluded from this authorization.

This change, contained in Order No. 3143-C/2022, of 14 March, “has already been published in the Official Gazette and is part of the path of progressive flexibility of the rules in a pandemic context that the government has been adopting,” explains the government.

The five Portuguese-speaking countries thus join the member states of the European Union (EU) and countries associated with the Schengen area (Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland), as well as Brazil, Canada, the United and the United Kingdom, which were already covered by the same order.

The provisions on essential travel, i.e. those for professional, study, family, health, humanitarian or other reasons, remain unchanged.

The rules previously established for entry into mainland Portugal concerning the presentation of Covid-19 vaccination or recovery certificates and SARS-CoV-2 virus testing also remain in force.

According to the law, passengers who do not possess a Covid-19 EU Digital Certificate or another certificate recognised under the terms of the law must present, at the time of departure, proof of a negative result from a PCR test or a rapid antigen test for professional use, carried out within 72 or 24 hours before boarding time, respectively.

It is up to the airlines to verify these tests.

Covid-19 has caused at least 6,011,769 deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest report by Agence France-Presse.

Source: Lusa