MPs approve parliamentary hearings on Ana Catarina Mendez case on Timorese migrants

Members of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees approved this Wednesday Chega’s request for a Deputy Ministerial and Parliamentary hearing on the situation of Timorese migrants in Portugal.

Chega’s application, which also includes hearings from the High Commissioner for Migration, the National Director of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and a representative from the International Organization for Migration, was approved with positive votes from all parties and with the PKP abstaining.

The Lisbon municipality representative’s hearing, which was also included in Chega’s statement, was “failed” by the PS’s no vote, deeming it inappropriate to “localize or regionalize this issue” as it “crossed dozens of counties”.

In the debate leading up to the vote on the bid, there was a moment of tension between Block de Esquerda and Chega when recriminations were exchanged.

Introducing the statement, Chega parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto said the arrival of “three thousand Timorese migrants in Lisbon” this summer “became almost a public health issue.”

“It would be important that the Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, as well as the High Commissioner for Migration in his capacity as National Director of the SEF, find out how this happened,” he said.

Shortly thereafter, the parliamentary leader of the Block de Esquerda, Pedro Filipe Soares, stated that his party would comply with Chega’s request, but believed that “those who often try to create rules to prevent migration (…), many times they are not on the side of the law, but on the side of creating human trafficking networks”.

“What we often see is that anti-migrant political discourse works in favor of trafficking networks in parliament,” he said.

Pedro Pinto then asked for the floor to defend that “Unfortunately, these migration prevention rules must be used, that is, what Chega always defended, that everyone, everyone, everyone cannot come without knowing how they come, where they come what they come to do”.

“Whoever uses the talk about human trafficking networks, for example, in the Beja area, is Blok de Esquerda. Look at his representative, what he says every day, using these people, saying that it is political parties like BE that take advantage of what is happening to want to do something,” he accused.

In response, Pedro Filipe Soares said he was used to “something coming out of the mouths of Chega members”, accusing Pedro Pinta of “absolute ignorance of the law” for “not knowing that Timorese citizens arriving in Portugal , were born before 2002, any of them, at the time of application, is a citizen of Portugal”.

“He does not know the law, as a result of the lack of proper training of Chega’s deputies, and because of the prejudices that Chega has – structural, xenophobic – against migrants. (…) Chega will be left with his xenophobic, racist baggage: it’s your choice. But that doesn’t put us on the same page,” he said.

“I do not allow any MP in this House to call me a xenophobe and a racist, as MP Pedro Filipe Soares did. I don’t let him or anyone else call me a xenophobe or a racist,” Pedro Pinto replied.

Before this exchange of words, PS MP Joana Sa Pereira stated that Chega “shared the concern” about the need to know “what was done, what could be done” on this issue, since for this the organizations proposed by Chega favor the hearings, with the exception of the representative of the municipality Lisbon.

The PSD, in the voice of MP Monika Kintela, also expressed support for Chega’s request, believing that the Timorese immigrant situation is a “humanitarian drama” and that it is necessary to “understand how this exodus happened”.

Patricia Gilvaz of the Liberal Initiative (IL) stated that it cannot be tolerated that “there are any violations of human rights, whoever they are, and especially the rights of migrants when they look for Portugal in search of better living conditions.”

PKP MP Alma Rivera stressed that in addition to condemning those who benefit from the crime of human trafficking, one should not “forget those who benefit from it”, stating that the parties who are “the first to raise a fuss here are often the last”. remember that there are beneficiaries.”