Maputo, July 14, 2026 (Lusa) - Recruiters hired more than 1,500 Mozambicans in the first half of the year to work in Portugal in sectors facing staff shortages, with half of them going through the Employment Institute, the president of Mozambique told Lusa on Tuesday, highlighting the community’s integration.
“The Mozambican community in Portugal is well integrated. We are implementing the labour agreement between Mozambique and Portugal. From 1 January to 30 June, more than 1,500 Mozambicans left Mozambique for Portugal; around 800 of them went via the National Employment Institute,” said Daniel Chapo, who is leaving for Lisbon on an official visit, in an interview with Lusa.
“And we want to continue working so that, through the National Employment Institute, we can continue to send workers to Portugal,” he added.
The Portuguese Institute for Employment and Vocational Training facilitates this recruitment under labour mobility agreements, and private agencies also participate, placing workers in sectors with high labour demand in Portugal, such as transport, metalworking, and construction, according to the Portuguese government.
“We carried out a survey through private employment agencies and through the National Employment Institute, and we found that in the first half of the year alone, around 1,500 Mozambicans managed to go to Portugal, and our relations are excellent,” noted Chapo.
More than 15,000 Mozambicans currently live in Portugal, and Chapo maintains that it is one of the best-integrated communities.
“I would like to urge them to continue in this vein, to remain a humble community, a community that obeys Portuguese laws, because this is the country where they are living. And it is very important to obey all the laws of a given country,” he said.
“And just as the Portuguese living in Mozambique respect Mozambican laws, it is extremely important that Mozambicans living in Portugal respect Portuguese laws, because only in this way, as two sister nations, will we remain united and cohesive, and continue to develop our two countries and create better living conditions for Mozambicans, as well as for the Portuguese,” concluded Daniel Chapo.
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