The President’s minister announced this Wednesday that he will meet this week with the mayor of Lisbon to discuss the problems of homeless immigrants in the Portuguese capital, a situation he called “undignified.”
“At a time when in Portugal there are people living in undignified conditions, all authorities are called upon to cooperate, and the government will also contribute to this,” said António Leitan Amaru, speaking to journalists in parliament, as part of several meetings with parliamentary groups on migration policy issues.
“It is known that the President of the Lisbon City Council met with the Prime Minister yesterday, he will meet with me this week, but contacts are regular, so that together we can find solutions” to the problem.
“It is clear that local authorities, with their proximity and delegated powers,” play a fundamental role in solving problems at the local level, but “the government is a partner and we are going to solve a problem that has several dimensions together,” a government official said. .
Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas called a hearing this week to address the city’s homelessness problem, which has worsened in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In particular, the mayor expressed concern about the situation near the Anjos Church, where several immigrant tents are concentrated, a problem that cannot be solved by the municipality alone, taking into account that many of the people who stay there overnight, “they are not with me There’s not even any documentation.”
According to Carlos Moedas, “there is a national problem,” hence his request to the government and the President of the Republic: “We must all work together to solve this problem,” he emphasized.
Like the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, the mayor of the capital understands that the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) is “not working.”
The organization “must act, it must be accessible, because people cannot wait for years to be seen,” Carlos Moedas said Monday.
“This government is aware that today there is a difficult situation in terms of migration” and “we are going to do in 60 days what the previous government not only did not do, but even canceled in 3050 days,” explained Leitan Amaru. Today.
Recently, the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, José Cesário, said that applicants for the new visa for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) will have a “more demanding” procedure, which has already been criticized by the opposition.
On this occasion, the minister in charge of migration policy said that the SRSG agreement is not in doubt, but it is necessary to ensure compliance with one of the requirements of this international obligation, which is to “demonstrate the sufficiency of resources or living conditions” of those coming.
“All the parliamentary groups here said that in fact, in relation to the CPLP, its people and the migrants who came from there, there are a number of similarities” that contribute to their integration, stressed Leitan Amaru.
The CPLP Mobility Agreement (which brings together Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste) provides for a number of simplifications in the visa process, a long-standing demand of the organization.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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