This move comes in the wake of pressure from other European Union members and criticism by its media for blithely overlooking a citizenships racket operating in the heart of Lisbon’s registrar’s office.

Portugal deputed its Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities (the position is the equivalent of a minister of state) Jose de Almeida Cesario to Goa last week to look into the functioning of the the consulate general here.

Mr Cesario is said to have been shocked by the extent to which agents in Goa have taken control of processing applications for Portuguese nationality, turning it virtually into a business.

Huge hoardings at the entrance of Margao, and advertisements in the classifieds of local dailies flaunt with confidence the services of the passports agents. Their charges range from Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 to only process one’s entry papers. For 5,000 euros, one can have a Portuguese passport within three months. Thousands of poorer applicants here are known to have taken loans to pay off the agents’ fees.

The agents, incidentally, do not operate through the consulate here which has very little powers, but are directly linked to Conservatorio dos Registos Centrais (central registrar) in Lisbon.

Mr Cesario told the media his government is aware of the falsification of documents in citizenship applications, particularly from Daman and Diu. “The issue of nationality cannot be turned into a business,” he is quoted as having said by a local newspaper.

It is estimated that nearly a lakh Gujaratis from Daman and Diu have settled in Portugal, compared to the 25,000 from Goa. But Portugal has done little so far, to put an end to the illegalities.

All that could change now, as the Portuguese government works on modalities to clamp down on an extremely porous system that extends across half the globe. “It is not clear how they will reorganise things, but we expect they will take serious steps to set matters right after Cesarios’s visit,” sources in the consulate said.

The racket is said to be far larger in Brazil (Portugal’s biggest former colony) and equally extensive in Angola, Mozambique, Timor and Macau.

Portugal’s move would have a direct fallout on Goa, Daman and Diu, where those born before 1961 (when Goa was liberated), and their descendants up to a third generation, are still entitled to Portuguese nationality. Those aspiring for nationality must first register their birth in Portugal, after which one is entitled to an ID card, and finally a passport.

Thousands of genuine applicants from Goa have been waiting for years (some upto ten years) for the Portuguese ID. Following complaints of mismanagement, the consulate here has put a ban on accepting entry documents till 2004, and nationality applications till 2005. Any attempt to streamline the system therefore, could only work to clear the backlog.

Seen as the key to enter any European Union country, a Portuguese passport allows one to work in England as well.

"Worried about the future and want to keep the options open for the family? Take advantage and benefit from the Portuguese nationality that is available to all people of Goan origin. You can contact us for friendly and reliable assistance", announces an agency in the Internet. "It is enough to send an email to find out how much it will cost you."

It is quite expensive for the normal Indian folk. The European dream embraces the old Portuguese State of India with its organized network of fake documents. The Central Civil Registry Office in Lisbon has 11,221 pending applications.

Apart from the freedom of circulation in the European Union that all Portuguese enjoy, the benefits also includes visa free for travelling to tempting destinations like the United States. "Portuguese nationality has become a business - in the old territories as well as in Portugal", admits the Secretary of State of the Communities, Jose Cesário.

The Secretary of State saw "posters of five meters by three" in the streets of Goa, when he visited that city last year. Along the highway from the international airport one of the most popular products of the city are advertisements regarding the Portuguese passport.

“At this moment, it is much more difficult than before,” certifies a Goan lawyer, Teresa Colaço, but the advertisements continue to appear every day in the classified pages of local newspapers.

According to the current law, the citizens born in the old State of India before 19 December 1961 (day of the invasion and military annexation) have the right to Portuguese nationality. The legislation assumes that, at the time, the people had acquired the Indian nationality forcibly. It gives them the possibility of, still today, to rescue their old status. It also grants nationality to their descendants - until the third generation.

The integration of Portugal in the European Union increased tremendously the number of applications for registration. The processes are submitted in the General Consulate of Portugal in Panjim or directly in the Conservatória of Registos Centrais (CRC), in Lisbon, where they tend to sleep forever. Some people thought they could profit from this situation. In exchange of considerable amounts of money, the specialized agencies started promising to obtain the documentation in record time.

The exception granted to the native inhabitants of Goa, Damão and Diu started to be abused by other people as well. A large number of fraudulent applications, based on false birth certificates, have been detected. Even people from out of India applied, namely from the Bangladesh and Pakistan. In the Internet, for example, some people have asked for further information from places as far as Qatar.

According to CRC, between the 2000 and 2002 a number of applications were duplicated. From 2000, it increased the number of cases of "identity usurpation": it had each time more people to register a name that already had been successfully registered, says the coordinator of the Department of Fake Documents, of the Judiciary Police, Conceição Jacinto.

"It started to become very obvious that the Portuguese nationality had transformed into a business", says Cesário. Not only because of the advertisements. The authorities of other countries had dismantled organized nets and exhorted Portugal to take a stance. "We received some protests, mainly from the United Kingdom", confessed the Secretary of State.

The law, a brazen way to skirt the laws of immigration, will be to be used even for terrorist causes. Masood Azad and Abu Salem, two Islamic extremists, have been captured with Portuguese passports although neither of them had links with Goa. These two cases elicited harsh criticism on the part of the international community - particularly Indian, devastated by the perpetual Kashmir conflict.

Clients of that "the scandal puts in question in our credibility - not only to the partners of the Union, but to all the members of the Shengen Space" - the Government ordered the suspension of the activity of the Portuguese consulate in this case. In October, it formed a working group, to involve the ministries of the Foreign Affairs, Justice and Internal Administration, to analyse the situation and to define strategies.

The confidential report has been delivered. In the beginning of this year it gave origin to changes. "We have new strategies", affirms Jose Cesário, disclosing that the consular services had come back to accept new applications. In order to validate the place of birth of the candidates, it will be necessary to present official documents", explained Jose Cesário to the PUBLIC. "They have to be valid the copies".

The Secretary of State asserts that the Indian notaries "are sufficiently corrupt", to facilitates the fraud. Also, the documents “ had been, during years, kept in conditions that were not the best ones". But the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of India has also pointed the finger at Portugal, since the illegality functions through agents who have contact with employees of the services of the Registers of Portuguese central offices.

To that it selected the PUBLIC, since when the General Consulate of Panjim opened, in 1994, it had dealt with about five a thousand applications. Lisbon received, directly much more than fifteen thousand. They estimate that only half of the applicants have valid documents. But Cesário does not admit that it has "vulnerability" on the part of the employees accepting bribes. "We do not have this diffidence", he pointed out. The PJ is to investigate, but so far it has not make any arrests.

The fact that Portugal has currently a right-wing Government causes some concerns in Goa. If the clause was annulled, India would read "an unfriendly act here", said Eduardo Faleiro, of the Foreign Affairs, to the local press. But Cesário guarantees that this is not the intention of the Government. The new rules are only aimed to fight fraud.

• Pedidos de nacionalidade
• Processo pode custar um pequena fortuna
• Há 70 mil indianos em Portugal
• Perguntas & Respostas
• A diáspora indiana

Before the Kandahar hijacking in 1999, Jaish-e-Mohammad militant Maulana Azhar Masood travelled to Burma and Bangladesh from where he crossed into India on a Portuguese passport.

It is no secret in Goa that Portuguese nationality is up for grabs. For US $ 3,000 (Rs 1.38 lakh), a Goan agent based in Margao, who claims to have a “five-man team of top lawyers in Lisbon” working for him, promises his clients a quick and effective processing of documents for Portuguese citizenship.

“When we were in Lisbon, a very authoritative source in the Conservatoria dos Registos Centrais (Portugal’s civil registry office that processes nationality documents) offered us immediate citizenship — passport, ID and driving licence — all within seven days for US $ 4,000 (Rs 1.84 lakh)” a non-resident Indian of Goan origin told this newspaper in confidence.

He has been chasing his wife’s Portuguese nationality application for 20 years with little success. “She has a moral right to Portuguese citizenship. So we refused to pay,” he said.

Profitable business
So profitable is the business for those processing documentation in Lisbon that a former diplomat, who served as vice-consul in Portugal’s Delhi embassy, gave up his foreign office career to become a passport facilitator in Lisbon.

A former judge from Goa too figures in the list of upmarket Lisbon-based agents provided to this newspaper. The ex-judge is said to average Rs 40,000 a case.
“We recently paid a very basic retainer of 250 pounds sterling (Rs 21,000 approximately) to the venerable former vice-consul in Lisbon, without any success at all,” says the NRI.

The implications of Portugal’s passport racket (said to extend to its missions abroad) and the wide and blatant misuse of the nationality rights offered to those born in Portugal’s former colonies in India before 1961, has both Britain and the US worried in the post-9/11 scenario.

Portuguese diplomatic sources admit that the numbers of false passport holders (many on assumed identities picked off tombstones in Goan cemeteries) would run into thousands.

“A Punjabi applicant we were trying to trace surfaced in Belgium on a Goan Catholic name,” an official said.

According to reports in the Portuguese media, over 11,200 passport applications are being investigated in Lisbon.

Worried about the new tide of migration via the Portugal route, the UK is said to have lodged a formal protest with Portugal. A British team also travelled to Goa to speak to Portuguese consular staff here. The Americans, too, are believed to have launched an investigation.

“It is most worrying that many are getting entry into the US based on their Portuguese citizenship. It’s a scandal that those with no ties to Portugal are getting these passports,” a US contact said.

Review of law
Under pressure from the more influential European Union members, Portugal could review its 1975 nationality law that allows citizenship to those born in Goa, Daman and Diu before 1961, genuine applicants fear. The consulate in Panjim has been on a ‘go slow’ on new applications.

“I have heard the law may be reviewed,” says former Congress Union minister of state for external affairs Eduardo Faleiro.

The Rajya Sabha member argues that misuse of the Portuguese passport was no excuse for the consulate to stop accepting genuine applications. “Those who are entitled are being denied a passport. What action has Portuguese officialdom taken to stop the racket?” he asks.

The consulate’s ‘go slow’ has not deterred resourceful agents in the least. With direct and influential links to Lisbon, they’ve been sending four applications to Lisbon for every one handled by the local consulate. In the month of June 2003, the consulate received 2,000 applications for the attestation of documents from one Margao agent alone.

The North Goa Collector’s office told Deccan Herald it receives 10 to 12 applications for attestation a day.

The facts speak for themselves: While the Portuguese consulate has handled 3,800 applications from 1994 (when it was established) to date, 11,592 applications have been processed up to July 2000 by Lisbon’s civil registry.

"When the Portuguese left its colonies in India in 1961, it was a gesture on their part to look after its former citizens and therefore those born before 1961 were given Portuguese citizenship if they made an application for it," a senior official from the Consulado-Geral de Portugal told Gulf News.

But the Portuguese government is now rethinking a legislation passed in 1975 allowing citizens of its former colonies to be given Portuguese nationality.

And to withdraw this legislation would take a long time and therefore, there are instructions to go slow and restrict the number of applicants being given nationality.

But through fraudulent practices a Portuguese passport can be obtained within a short time for a tidy sum by submitting fake papers.

After the 9/11 terror attacks and subsequent hunt for various terrorist groups, the United States, Britain and other European countries have put pressure on Portugal to screen all its entrants.

The problem has worsened with even non-Goans applying for Portuguese passport.

"It has become a free for all", says the official who receives around 30-40 applications in a month.

With the slowdown, there are 18,000 applications from Goa for Portuguese passports waiting to be processed.

These are submitted directly to Lisbon by travel agents from Goa whilst the Consulate here has sent 2,500 applications since 1994.

According to the Consulate official, there are around 40,000 Goans and 100,000 Gujaratis from Daman and Diu who have settled down in Portugal since 1961.

But most recent entrants use their Portuguese nationality as a gateway to better prospects in other countries.

"And why not?" asks Bruno Gomindes, Managing Director, Travco Holidays Pvt Ltd, an international travel company operating from Goa.

"A Portuguese passport gives you a clean and decent entry into all the European countries and even the United States, not to speak of other countries," he says.

Though older Goans speak Portuguese, the new generation only knows English and therefore the choice is Britain or the United States.

In fact, suburban Swindon near London is full of immigrant Goans.

Gomindes himself is a Portuguese passport holder who is carrying on a thriving travel business as a Person of Indian Origin here by helping young and even older Goans by doing the entire documentation required for obtaining a Portuguese passport.

"I'm a citizen of Portugal and can even become the president of that country," he said.

Excerpts:

Imagine…you have lived a major chunk of your life in your motherland. One fine day, you get an opportunity to leave for foreign shores, to earn a livelihood or maybe to simply roam around. You approach the concerned officials to prepare your passport. Therein lies the twist. Say the authorities, that you do not exist in this country.

In fact, you have migrated to another nation ages back to earn your daily bread. Shocked! Now read the fact - many Indians have already faced such a situation, especially while travelling to Portugal. The reason behind this human smuggling involves a bit of history, culture and legalities.

This phenomenon of sending false candidates abroad to Portugal is rampant in Goa and Daman. An astonishing fact is that, rather than certain Goans, who have the right to stake a claim for Portuguese nationality, it is the Gujarati community that has capitalised on the legal loopholes, or can we say opportunities! …

The 1975 Portuguese National Law also holds that, descendants of those born before 1961, until their third generation, can apply for a valid Portuguese passport…

However, many non-eligible Indians took this rule as an opportunity to gatecrash into Portugal and then other European nations…

these culprits obtained the details of dead Catholic citizens from graveyards and used them to fabricate documents.

Full text, 1483 words click here.