A/HRC/35/25/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, conducted an official visit to Angola from 3 to 10 May 2016. The visit was undertaken to assess the migration laws, policies, programmes and practices developed by the Angola authorities in recent years. Furthermore, he was particularly interested in learning how Angola implements the mobility provisions contained in its multilateral and bilateral trade agreements, as his thematic report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/32/40) specifically addressed the topic of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and the mobility agreements provided therein. 2. During his eight-day visit to Angola, the Special Rapporteur met with a range of government officials, representatives of civil society and international organizations and migrants themselves to discuss migration governance in Angola. 3. The Special Rapporteur held meetings in Luanda, Cabinda and Lunda Norte and visited detention centres in each province. 4. The Special Rapporteur expresses his appreciation to the Government of Angola for the support provided throughout the visit. II. General background on Angola and migration: a brief overview 5. Angola sits on the west coast of south-central Africa. Its history and economic outlook are largely shaped by a 14-year war for independence from Portugal, which it achieved on 11 November 1974, followed by an intermittent 27-year civil war in which the country experienced mass migration and forced internal displacement until 2002. 6. Angola receives a very high number of irregular migrants and asylum seekers from West Africa in general and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular, drawn by natural resources, economic growth, political stability and porous borders. The migration population in Angola has more than doubled since 2000. A presumably high percentage of those migrants are attracted to work in informal artisanal diamond mining in border provinces, mainly in Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul and Zaire. Historically, there has always been a considerable amount of contact and cross-border activity between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to the long and porous border between the two countries, some of which is in diamond exploration areas. 7. The most recent figures from the United Nations on the number of recorded migrants indicate that Angola has 33,517 international migrants. That figure includes estimates of the foreign-born population and the number of refugees, as reported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which were added to the estimate of international migrants in Angola. The majority of international migrants come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12,178), Portugal (5,298), Cape Verde (3,569), Sao Tome and Principe (3,112) and South Africa (2,437).1 The Special Rapporteur observes that that figure does not include asylum seekers and irregular migrants who are currently present in Angola. In April 2017, the Government of Angola provided updated figures indicating that there 200,000 foreigners in Angola, most of whom are Chinese or Portuguese. Of that number, 30,143 are asylum seekers of various nationalities, mostly from Guinea. There are currently 16,190 refugees. 8. The Special Rapporteur received information indicating that irregular migration is considered a serious threat to national security and the economy, especially in the diamond areas. The Government of Angola is therefore increasing its efforts to improve border control along the extremely long and porous borders. That is reflected in public statements 1 See United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2015), “Trends in international migrant stock: migrants by destination and origin” (POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2015). Available from www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates15.shtml. 3