Interior Minister Margarida Blasco said on Tuesday that the situation at the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) in Lisbon, where immigrants have been queuing since dawn, would have to be resolved “very soon.”
“We are attentive and the situation will have to be resolved very soon,” Margarida Blasco told reporters in Ourem (Santarem), where she attended the presentation of the Special Rural Fire Protection Device for 2024.
When asked how the government would address the situation, the minister acknowledged that it was a “human issue” that affected everyone.
“And therefore the government will resolve this situation with all confidence as soon as possible, and then how it does it, it will tell you,” he said.
Faced with a report from Radio Renacens that a 9-year-old Nepalese boy was a “victim of lynching” at a school in Lisbon, Margarida Blasco said that “all crimes, and especially hate crimes, have enormous seriousness.”
“What I can say is that together with the police authorities, we will strengthen both the police work in schools and the police work in the vicinity to replace the device for the purpose of prevention, which is the first stage,” he assured the ruler.
The minister also considered that “all the Portuguese legitimize what is happening.”
“Both the government and we, in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the Ministry of Education, with the Ministry of Health, we intend to create faster and more effective programs to mitigate these situations,” said Margarida Blasco.
According to Renascença, earlier this year, a 9-year-old Nepalese boy was brutally attacked by other classmates at school in Lisbon.
The complaint was made over the radio by the executive director of the church institution Centro Padre Alves Correia, who considered that “the motives of the other minors were xenophobic and racist.”
In the early hours of May 4, several immigrants were attacked in three different locations in the city of Porto. In one case, the attack took place on the home of 10 immigrants on Rua do Bonfim, where a group of 10 men invaded.
At least two of the attackers were treated at the Sao Joao hospital. Six men were identified and one was arrested for possession of an illegal weapon, taken to court and remanded in custody.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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