This Thursday, Parliament approved Livre’s recommendation to strengthen the resources of the Working Conditions Authority, especially in companies that employ migrants, and rejected the emergency programme for AIMA proposed by the PCP.
The draft resolution of Livre, which is being converted into a recommendation to the government, received the votes of PS, IL, BE, PCP and PAN against Chega and abstentions from PSD and CDS.
Livre is asking the government to strengthen the Office of Labor Conditions (ACT) by providing it with staff trained in languages for inspection activities and to create documentation that can be posted at workplaces in languages such as Hindi and Urdu. and “Bengali” in companies employing migrant workers.
In the same vote, Parliament failed the emergency program proposed by the PKP to streamline the processes of issuing residence permits pending at the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), with SDP, Chega, IL, CDS voting against and abstaining. from PS.
The BE bill on the integration of sociocultural animators in AIMA entered the first committee without a vote, and another draft Livre resolution on centralizing requests for renewal of residence permits in AIMA was rejected by the votes of Chegi, CDS and PSD. and abstinence from IL.
During the debate, the decision to abolish the expression of interests mechanism, taken by the current PSD/CDS-PP government, was divided between the left and the right: PS, BE, PCP and Livre warned that immigrants “will continue to arrive” in the country, but now they will not have forms of regularization and will be more exposed to human trafficking networks.
António Filipe, a member of parliament from the PCP, which scheduled the debate, believes that the current situation regarding immigration is “catastrophic in many ways.”
Although the executive branch has announced the creation of a mission structure within AIMA and the strengthening of 300 staff, these measures are not enough for the PKP and it is proposing an emergency program that includes hiring up to 10 thousand temporary employees.
As for the PS, MP Claudia Santos criticised the withdrawal of the expression of interest, stating that “it is absolutely unworthy of the State to finance its social security from the social benefits of immigrants, the regularisation of which is not allowed.”
“The mechanism for expressing interests exists to overcome absolute humiliation, and we are very proud of this,” defended the deputy, who expressed “pride” in the socialists’ migration policy over the past eight years.
BE led the discussion on integrating into the AIMA staff the sociocultural animators who currently collaborate with the agency. The project is being contested by IL parliament leader Mariana Leitan, who accused the blockers of wanting to “violate the Constitution,” which stipulates that access to the civil service is through a competitive examination.
In response, blocker Fabian Figueiredo used the figure of a seagull used in a speech at the official session on April 25, 1974 by President Il Rui Rocha: “Imagine two seagulls: one gets more fish than the other. The flock treats the seagulls differently. This is the constitutional principle: equal work equal pay.”
On the right, MP Nuno Gonçalves of the PSD said the government inherited a “dark panorama” and criticized the “slow decline of the SEF in the agony of the previous government without an adequate transition plan”, which had led to “AYMA being overburdened”.
“We are not the ones who defend open doors. But we are also not defending another immigrant in Portugal,” the MP said, addressing Chega.
Andre Ventura has come under the harshest criticism, accusing the PS and the left of having a “wide open door” policy on immigration.
“While Chega looks at the country, points his finger at those who extinguished the SEF and created the mess we have, others who pretend to be victims and poor people are responsible for this,” he accused.
IL MP Mario Amorim Lopes accused the previous PS government of “neglect and incompetence”, “supported by the far-left parties that always claim to be the great champions of humanism”, but also criticised Chega for “treating immigrants as offenders or criminals”.
Regarding the CDS-PP, MP João Almeida stated that the PS “opened the door wide and let everything happen”, believing that socialist policies in this area were “a mistake in terms of rigor, but also in terms of humanism”.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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