The Presidential Minister promised this Saturday that the Migration Action Plan, which will be presented on Monday, includes stricter rules, a strategy to attract qualified professionals and differentiated treatment for Portuguese speakers.
In an interview with Diário de Notícias and TSF, António Leitan Amaro criticized the current law on foreigners, which allows those arriving on a tourist visa to be legalized in Portugal through an expression of interest. The 2017 measure created a “serious problem, regardless of their goodwill,” due to the increasing number of immigrants without work visas in the country.
“Migration policy is one of the greatest failures of the previous government” and “one of the worst legacies we have received,” he said, criticizing “the wrong choice of laws and regulations for entry and regularization in Portugal, as well as for the collapse of institutions, the result of choices and the process of closing the SEF (Service for Foreigners and Borders).
The SEF and the High Commission for Migration (ACM) were abolished in October 2023, making way for the newly created Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).
According to Leitan Amaru, “Portugal needs immigrants, but it needs rules. The rules are better, in some cases stricter. Portugal needs to attract skilled immigrants and welcome those who are here. The current situation with failed verification, whether at entry or on national territory, rules that are out of control, especially regarding entry, lead to a clear degradation of the integration apparatus.”
In the past, Portugal was “a benchmark in the world for its ability to integrate”, and today immigrants live on the streets, stressed the minister, who advocates institutional strengthening, “namely through support and partnerships with local organizations, non-governmental organizations – from religious to community civil character – immigrant communities and their associations.”
In 2023, Portugal processed around 180,000 applications for the regularization of immigrants, but there were still 400,000 outstanding issues, including “expressions of interest in obtaining a first residence permit, requests for family reunification, visa applications, extensions of visas or residence permits, visa procedures for CPLP citizens.” [Comunidade dos Países e Língua Oficial Portuguesa]”.
Among these candidates, many have already left the country due to the lack of response from the state, the minister acknowledged, emphasizing that AIMA receives an average of five thousand cases per week and has a “response capacity that may currently be below 2,000.” “.
In an interview with DN and TSF, Leitan Amaro abandoned the quota policy and said that the new policy will have stricter rules, but “there are several paths and several channels of entry that deserve a different approach.”
In consultations with parties and associations, “there was an almost unanimous position that within these rules it would make sense to have positive discrimination, more favorable treatment of immigrants coming from CPLP countries, for reasons of cultural and linguistic affinity, which facilitates social integration” .
The current CPLP visa only allows you to stay in Portuguese territory, but the minister needs to address the “humiliation that many citizens are experiencing today” from these countries who “came under a regime, a free movement agreement, and then arrived with paper that does not meet the capabilities of this free circulation and the renewal of which will never occur again.”
The minister promised to find a solution to visa extensions soon and acknowledged the need to “work with the CPLP countries, the European Commission and the Schengen authorities for a solution that gives dignity” and maintains “this spirit of agreement” on Lusophone mobility. .
About AIMA and current President Gues Pinheiro [nomeado pelo PS]Leitan Amaru said the board had received a “very difficult inheritance” and that “the main responsibility for the paralysis and failure to respond lies with the previous government.”
AIMA “has a deeply disorganized documentation process with rules in some cases (…) inadequate in terms of quality, verification and control,” he also said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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