Anafre has defended the fact that the issuing by parishes of residence certificates to foreign citizens does not require the presentation of any residence permit, because it is not the competence of these municipalities to assess the legality of immigrants’ stay in the country.
The position of the legal office of the National Association of Parishes (Anafre), sent to these municipalities on Wednesday, comes after some councils, including Arroios in Lisbon, began refusing these certificates to non-EU immigrants without a valid residence permit in Portugal, despite the law stating that the testimony of two people registered in the parish is sufficient for this certificate.
In a certificate of residence, “what is at stake is proof of residence and not the legality of staying in national territory, a legal competence that parish councils do not have,” is highlighted in Anafre’s opinion, to which Lusa has had access.
Anafre’s legal office pointed out that, legally, the issuing of certificates by parish councils depends on “direct knowledge of the facts by any of the members of the executive or deliberative body, two witnesses registered in the parish, and by any other means of proof admissible in law, including documentary or other proof”.
“The verification of these means of proof is not cumulative, and any one of them can serve to support the issuing of the certificate,” he considered.
However, he stressed, “this is without prejudice to requesting other means of proof in case of doubt, but not the residence permit”.
“At no point do the laws referred to make any distinction between nationals and foreigners,” said the association.
Anafre also pointed out that the law on the conditions and procedures for the entry, stay, exit and removal of foreign citizens from Portuguese territory “does not require the presentation of a residence permit for the purposes of issuing a residence certificate”.
“For this reason, Anafre believes that the issuing of residence certificates by parish councils to foreign citizens does not require them to present any residence permit. In this position, we are accompanied by an opinion issued on April 12, 2004, by the High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities, as well as an opinion signed by the Ombudsman on November 19, 2004,” he added.
Speaking to Lusa, Jorge Veloso (PS), president of Anafre, explained that the issuing of a certificate of residence by parish councils, according to the law in force, is a purely administrative act, with the councils having no supervisory role.
This also doesn’t prevent them from refusing to issue the certificate in suspicious cases without further proof, or even asking the competent authorities to intervene to check, but “this cannot be a rule applied to any and all citizens who request the certificate solely on the basis of its origin,” he said.
Jorge Veloso considered that the parish councils that require a valid residence permit are reversing the process, since “it’s the other way around”: in order to have a valid residence permit and access to essential services, these citizens need a parish council to issue them with a residence certificate.
The decision to limit access to residence certificates by some parishes has been contested by the government, the PS, BE and CDU in the parish of Arroios and by more than a dozen migrant support and anti-racist associations, who point out that this document is “required for things as essential as obtaining a residence permit, enrolling in the National Health Service, at school or even at the tax office”.
“It is up to the local authorities, namely the town councils, to monitor the number of people living in the houses and the conditions in which they live, but they must not extrapolate these powers, namely by requiring residence permits to obtain a residence certificate,” said the office of the Assistant Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, in a written reply to the Lusa news agency.
Fifty health professionals from the Local Health Unit of São José, in central Lisbon, have also demanded that the Arroios council “immediately suspend” the decision, as they consider that this “abusive measure” makes it difficult for vulnerable communities to access health care.
In a response sent to Lusa, the Arroios Parish Council (the “Novos Tempos” coalition of PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança) justified the measure on the grounds that it was legally “prevented from issuing documents containing declarations and other decisions that do not comply with the applicable law”.
For the Junta’s executive, the municipality “has a duty” to “request that the applicant provide proof that they are, in fact and in law, the holder of a valid residence permit”, otherwise it will not be able to grant the request, stressing that this has been “the understanding endorsed, among other administrative bodies, by the Directorate-General for Local Authorities and the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission”.