Leader of the SDP; Luis Montenegro this Friday expressed “great concern” about the arrival of “large thousands” of Timorese in Portugal in recent weeks, saying the government should intervene “rapidly” in the matter.
“I see this with great dismay. We are following this situation very closely, in which many thousands of Timorese brothers are already involved, that is how we should treat them, and it is imperative that the government speaks out and intervenes immediately.” , he said.
Luis Montenegro, in a conversation with journalists on the sidelines of the official opening of the 30th Chestnut Festival in Cernanselh, Viseu district, which runs from today to Sunday, recalled that the SDP defended the importance of a policy regarding emigration.
“For many months I have supported the need to have a comprehensive policy and a national program for the reception and integration of emigrants, although this is an exceptional case,” he said.
However, he defended, if the country had “such a policy in development, it would be easier” now to “react precisely to the drama that has been felt in recent days” in connection with the arrival of the Timorese in Portugal.
The Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs said today that nearly 1,300 Timorese citizens remain in Portugal, including some 200 who arrived at dawn, in what she calls a “humanitarian issue”.
Ana Catarina Mendes recalled that Ana Catarina Mendes recalled that in order to address the Committee on Budget and Finance on the state budget for 2023 and ask several MPs questions about the state of affairs regarding the various Timorese who arrived in Portugal, Ana Catarina Mendes recalled that she brought up the subject herself. , in September to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
In recent months, “about five thousand Timorese have arrived in Portugal” and another four thousand have left, the official said.
“About 1,073 East Timorese remain in Portugal, to which we must add the approximately 198 people who arrived in Portugal this morning,” the minister said.
Ana Catarina Mendez also added that among these almost 1,300 citizens, 865 are Timorese who arrived in Portugal but did not seek support from any authorities, namely the High Commissioner for Migration (ACM), “who is the first to give an answer to these people.”
On the other hand, he said that 542 Timorese are in “decent housing” while the rest remain in “less deserving” solutions such as collective housing or youth hostels.
The High Commissioner for Migration (ACM) has identified 825 Timorese citizens living in vulnerable situations in Portugal and nearly 500 people have been resettled elsewhere in the country, the Secretary of State for Equality and Migration said today.
In an interview with Lusa, Isabelle Almeida Rodriguez, who is coordinating a task force set up in early September by the government to monitor the flood of Timorese who have entered the country in recent months, said the 825 people who are in a vulnerable situation were not all homeless.
“Degrees of vulnerability are not all the same, and this distinction is important because responses are triggered depending on the specific situation of each of them,” he said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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