According to British authorities, several Timorese citizens who have received support in Portugal in recent months suddenly left their jobs and left for the United Kingdom, some of whom were eventually deported.
This information was confirmed to Luce by several sources who have accompanied 1,200 Timorese who have come to Portugal in an irregular situation since 2022, many of whom ended up sleeping on the streets in different parts of the country.
Figures from the Foreigners and Border Guards (SEF) provided by Luce show that in 2022, 6,814 Timorese entered Portugal and 5,135 left.
In the first quarter of this year, 731 Timorese entered and 581 left. During this period, 50 Timorese left Portugal for the purpose of entering the United Kingdom, which was deemed inadmissible.
The growing problem of Timorese smuggling into the United Kingdom is confirmed by the latest statistics from the British Home Office.
In the third quarter of 2022, 359 East Timorese were banned from entering the UK, more than half of them males between the ages of 18 and 29, according to data released on 23 February.
That number nearly doubled the 189 registered in the previous quarter between April and June. A year earlier, in the third quarter of 2021, only four Timorese were unable to deliver to the UK.
The Home Office also registered 123 Timorese held in temporary detention centers awaiting deportation in the third quarter of 2022, up 339% from 28 in the previous quarter.
Support teams explained that they helped find alternatives for the vast majority, including jobs, noting that in recent weeks some have left where they left off and the jobs they have managed to get in the meantime.
“Several Timorese who have applied for CPLP residency have bought plane tickets to the United Kingdom to try to enter. The English Immigration Service let them in and the message began to spread among the Timorese like a fuse,” one source said.
“Overnight, we started getting requests for help, expressions of interest, or assistance with the process of applying for a residence permit,” he says.
The same sources say that the Timorese were able to convert “incomplete expressions of interest” or requests made after December 31, 2022, into residence permits.
Many of the Timorese who received these residence permits went to the United Kingdom almost immediately: “Dozens of people went to the United Kingdom last week,” said one source heard by Lusa.
“Even those with whom we signed contracts and worked for a year, earning 800 euros, left cleanly, without telling anyone. We figured it out last week when we started getting calls from our bosses,” he explains.
Timorese can enter as tourists for up to six months without a visa, but to operate in the United Kingdom, most foreign nationals need to have a work visa and a minimum wage job already guaranteed by the company, in addition to a minimum knowledge of English.
British border guards can refuse entry into the country if they have good reason to suspect that visitors intend to be left without the necessary documents.
In most cases, they do not leave the airport and are deported within a few hours, but they may also be held in temporary detention facilities until repatriation.
Despite controversy sparked by last year’s irregular arrivals and promises to tighten control over Timor-Leste, dozens of Timorese continue to arrive in Portugal, all out of work and many want to use the country to “jump” to the United Kingdom.
Timorese deported from the United Kingdom with neither an expression of interest nor a residence permit in Portugal should be sent back to Timor-Leste.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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