PCP says waiting for immigrants to get residency ’embarrasss the country’

On Wednesday, the PCP said the delay in residence permits was “embarrassing the country” by causing “hundreds of thousands of foreigners” to “put their lives on hold” and accused the government of being unwilling to address the problem.

In a political statement in parliament, PCP MP Alma Rivera said Portugal was home to “hundreds of thousands of foreigners” who felt “half human, half citizen” and their lives were “suspended and linked to residence permit processes.”

“Many, many thousands of people spend their days enlisting the help of family, friends, lawyers and even rogue prosecutors by calling the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) just to try to get an appointment,” he said. .

Alma Rivera argued that this situation “disgraces the country” and believed that “driving to despair thousands of people who simply want to regulate their situation is not an integration policy worthy of the name, it is not even a policy of respect for human rights.” “.

“And yet, it seems that the government has no real desire to solve this problem and guarantee decent conditions for those who seek our country. Again, words and proclamations do not correspond to the deeds,” he accused. .

According to the PCP MP, just days before the closure of the SEF and its administrative replacement by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), there are around 300,000 pending cases in relation to expression of interest residence permit applications alone.

“The volume of unresolved issues that will be transferred to the new agency on October 30 is incalculable,” he stressed, adding that it is not yet known how AIMA will be strengthened to cope with the situation.

In this context, Alma Rivera mentioned that the PKP submitted a request to hear the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in charge of migration and the AIMA Board of Directors on this issue, but was rejected by the PS, stating that it was “untimely.” and it was a transitional stage.”

“That is, to someone who has been waiting 2, 3 or 4 years for an appointment to the SEF, we say that they need to wait a little longer, because this issue is neutral territory,” he criticized.

The PCP deputy called on the government to “use the means at its disposal to put an end to this genuine disaster,” arguing that the Portuguese state should not only “proclaim its humanistic vision,” but also “practice it.”

In a period of requests for clarification, Socialist MP Romualda Fernandez said the PS defends a “humanistic immigration policy aimed at the social and economic integration of immigrants” but acknowledges that there are “serious problems”.

“We are well aware of these restrictions. That is why the government has taken action,” he said, highlighting that 150,000 regularizations of CPLP immigrants have been carried out since March last year, and with the entry into force of AIMA, there will be a “strong commitment to administrative and technological modernization” to respond faster to claims of granting a residence permit.

Regarding the PSD, MP Emilia Cerqueira said there was “chaos in the migration services” and said her party was very concerned about the “no man’s land that has existed for three years”, accusing the PS of being “incapable of blaming each other friend.”

Chegi MP Gabriel Mita Ribeiro stated that “what is unacceptable is unregulated and excessive immigration” and believed that “the word ‘immigrant’ is being illegally imposed” by the United Nations (UN).

BE parliamentary leader Pedro Filipe Soares believed that “the decline of the SEF has gone on for too long” and argued that there is a “problem of lack of political will” on the part of the government, which, despite claims “that immigrants are very important to contribute to the development of the economy”, then it does not “give them the rights they should have.”