Caritas is concerned about the increase in requests for help from foreigners

Cáritas Portuguesa is concerned about the increase in requests for help from foreigners who find themselves in “situations of extreme vulnerability”, which has contributed to an increase in the number of homeless people.

Speaking to the Lusa agency as the agency, which works to promote and rationalize the social activities of the Catholic Church, prepares for a new national gathering, the President of Cáritas Portuguesa reported a steady increase in requests for help, whether in search of “basic things to live on” or in support requests.

According to Rita Valadas, “the pressure on attendance (…) has been enormous” during 2022 from both the Portuguese and foreign nationals, warning that there may not be a perception that “at the moment all foreigners arrive every day in the most remote areas of Portugal.”

“We are very concerned about the reality of foreigners,” the official acknowledged, noting that at stake are people without any support network who could be immigrants, refugees, foreigners with a tourist visa who later stay in the country.. or even “people who come up with the mafia God knows how.”

Rita Valadas realized that these people were arriving in Caritas in a “situation of great vulnerability” and that “one of the signs” that they are beginning to notice is the emergence of homeless people in areas of the country where this phenomenon has not been recorded. .

As an example, he cited the Bezh case, where, according to him, there was “registration of 80 homeless people” and that at the end of 2022 there were “three hundred and such people.”

“This is a huge increase, but this is a very specific situation, and some of them simply did not take to the streets because various organizations have mobilized to seek emergency response,” he emphasized, adding that the need for this type of response is growing, but the warning about the lack final answers given that “housing is one of the most critical situations in terms of social intervention”.

According to Rita Valadas, there are several warnings from various diocesan and parish caritases about the appearance of groups of foreigners, one of which was 50 people a few weeks ago, to which they do not know what to answer.

For the head of Caritas, the most critical situation currently concerns Timorese citizens, despite the fact that “at the moment representatives of all nationalities live in Portugal.”