Immigrant trafficking is a “structural problem” and the police intervene because society is “failing.”

Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro recalled this Friday that immigrant trafficking and exploitation “is a structural problem” and when the police intervene it is a “sign” that society has “failed”.

“This is not a new problem, it is a structural problem”, from an international point of view, a spokesman for the Évora GNR Territorial Command, where he oversaw the opening of the “Maria and Antonio” space, told reporters this Friday. refurbished room designed to assist the victims.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, journalists questioned the minister about the activities of the Judicial Police (SP) in cooperation with other organizations, which led to the arrest on Wednesday of 35 people belonging to a criminal network that hired foreign workers. for agriculture price Baixo Alentejo |

Asked if there are enough police and surveillance facilities throughout the territory, namely Alentejo, to monitor and take action against this phenomenon of human trafficking and illegal immigration destined for agriculture, the official replied: “We tend to try introduce into the police what should be in society as a whole.

“When the police intervene, it is a sign that society as a whole is failing,” he said, defending that “the first thing that should exist is to know if it is the person who hires,” “observing all the rules necessary to use, namely an employment contract, adequate and decent conditions for the implementation of labor activity.

Secondly, “it is necessary to check whether people” entered the country “regularly or irregularly, and it is for this reason that police forces” such as the Foreigners and Border Guards Service (SEF), GNR and PSP intervene “to check whether whether these streams are regular or irregular,” he argued.

It is “an effort that should be united by several organizations that should strive, first of all, to respect fundamental human rights, protect human rights, social rights and the constitutional rights of those who live, these works.” in our country,” he insisted.

The Minister recalled that “a very important step towards the future” of the country has already been taken by “integrating the responsibilities that belonged to the SEF into three police bodies”, PJ, PSP and GNR, which “will cooperate for security and integrated border management” and “illegal actions and fight against human trafficking”.

And “this migration management system architecture” is being reformed with the creation of a migration and asylum agency, “creating more opportunities for the country to accurately receive, welcome and integrate” those seeking Portugal, he said. .

Police operations “are part of only one dimension of the complexity of phenomena and migratory flows,” which “should also be understood in their complexity and generality,” the minister defended.