SDP leader confirms the need to welcome immigrants to avoid human trafficking

This Wednesday, the PSD President reaffirmed the need for Portugal to have a “well-structured program for attracting, accepting and integrating immigrants” in order to prevent these people from falling into human trafficking networks.

Luis Montenegro responded to a national-level operation carried out this Wednesday by the Maritime Police to combat criminal networks associated with the illegal capture, trade and international trade in shellfish, during which 243 immigrants were identified and four people were arrested.

“We have been supporting for a year now the need for Portugal to have a well-structured program for attracting, accepting and integrating immigrants. We need labor immigrants in various sectors of economic activity, but we have conditions,” he said.

The SDP leader argued that people cannot be targeted by networks that do not seek funds for illegal profits, and also argued for the need to regulate immigration to give people dignity.

“Left forces immediately rise up and want to accuse us of racist and xenophobic political behavior. They are so ridiculous that they do not even deserve an answer, the answer is the situation in which many immigrants who come here do not have decent conditions for reception, housing and social support,” he stressed.

Luis Montenegro spoke to journalists in the Bairro Cidade Sol area, in Barreiro, during the “Sentir Portugal” initiative, which will last until Thursday in the Setúbal area.

As part of this initiative, Luis Montenegro scheduled a meeting on Thursday with shellfish collectors from the Tagus River, on the Praia do Samuco River, in the municipality of Alcochete, one of the areas targeted this Wednesday by an anti-crime operation. networks related to the illegal capture, trade and international trafficking of bivalve mollusks developed by the NCIS Central Criminal Investigation Unit (UCIC).