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A year after the rescue vessel Aquarius took Deborah Osaretin out of the swirling waters of the Mediterranean, he is preparing a new life as a refugee in Fundao, in central Portugal.
The happy 21-year-old, who fled Nigeria in the face of ongoing attacks by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, is preparing couscous in a modest apartment, financed by the city's funds.
Portugal is an exception in Europe in that it faces a shortage of manpower and encourages immigration.
Osaretin found a job in a timepiece manufacturing company in Fundao, a town of 28,000 inhabitants located 250 km northeast of Lisbon.
Her roommate Augustina Sunday, also 21, works in a cherry orchard.
Last June, Aquarius was one of the first rescue vessels that the Italian government blocked because it closed the doors of the country to NGOs seeking migrants from the Mediterranean.
After a week at sea, the boat landed in Spain and its 630 pbadengers were spread across six countries. Portugal hosted 19, all of which were in Fundao.
"Pride of welcoming refugees"
Fundao converted a former Catholic seminary into a refugee center in 2017, providing a model destination for integration, while seeking to reverse the rural exodus.
The building at the foot of the Gardunha Mountains is just minutes away from the small village of Donas, where the family of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, comes.
The center is home to some 30 refugees, including those from Aquarius, mostly from Nigeria, Senegal, Eritrea and Sudan.
"Migrants … help develop our businesses and create value," said Fundao Mayor Paulo Fernandes.
"We went from the first phase of mistrust to the pride of welcoming refugees."
Rosa Monteiro, State Secretary in charge of Refugee Affairs, said that "Portugal's positive attitude towards migrants" stems from its own history of migration, more recently due to of the 2008-09 financial crisis.
"The Portuguese have this opportunity to feel empathy towards newcomers," said AFP Monteiro.
Strive to keep them
Since 2015, nearly 2,000 people, including children and the elderly, have arrived in Portugal as part of an EU refugee distribution program.
Monteiro said that 43% of people of working age had found jobs in agriculture, catering, the clothing industry or construction.
The others are still in training and resettlement programs or have left the country.
The government estimates that almost half of the refugees that Portugal has received have left the country, sometimes after only weeks.
"The refugees we lose often want to join family members in other countries," Monteiro said.
"They could also leave for countries with better economic prospects.To avoid this, we try to inform them about Portugal as much as possible."
& # 39; Seven children & # 39;
Osaretin is enrolled in an 18-month European program to promote the integration of newcomers.
In six months, she must leave the apartment and fend for herself without public badistance.
"Actually, I am very happy because I now have a roof, I work, I eat well," she told AFP.
"My goal is to make my life here, to find a husband and to have seven children," she smiles.
The journey of Osaretin led her to cross the deserts of Niger and Libya before her arrival on the Mediterranean coast, where she boarded a ship barely seaworthy before to be saved by Aquarius.
"Every day, I think of the risks that I took, when I had more strength, not water … I would not advise anyone to do what I have done, "she says.
"I just want to be free"
Another Fundao resident, Mory Camara, aged 20, left Guinea in 2017 where he claims to have been persecuted for his Christian faith in his predominantly Muslim village.
He went to Libya, then tried to cross the Mediterranean and almost drowned when his ship sank.
Arrived in Portugal in March, he intends to stay, he says.
"Here I am safe and free to go about my business, those who run the risk of going to Europe just like I wanted to be free," he said.
Camara, who would like to work in information technology, takes language clbades while looking for a vacancy.
Andreia Roque, a Fundao official, praised the determination of migrants to succeed.
"Despite the language issue, which is the most difficult, they are very motivated," she says.
"That's why we hope in the short term to have more common spaces and expand our ability to accommodate people."
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