In statements to journalists, attorney Elaine Linhares clarified that the protest aimed to end the “restriction on the professional practice of law” concerning AIMA.
Each day, there are a limited number of tickets available in each office for lawyers, who are unable to handle simple administrative procedures, stated the Brazilian lawyer, who has been practicing in Portugal for six years.
At the Lisbon office, where the protest gathered about a dozen lawyers, only ten tickets per day are available for lawyers. This limitation forces many to arrive at dawn to secure one, as slots are filled well before the office opens at 09:00.
“What are we supposed to tell our clients if we don’t have access to the office, which is open, yet we face this restriction?” the lawyer questioned.
The group of lawyers requested to meet with the AIMA’s management, but so far, they have received no response.
“Yesterday, a colleague came from the Algarve at 4:00 AM, and she wasn’t sure she’d be lucky enough to be among the first ten,” explained Elaine Linhares, noting that the lack of access represents a “limitation on the work of lawyers working with immigrants.”
Other communication channels offer no response: “Emails are deleted, the call center doesn’t answer, letters go unanswered. So, the only possible means of communication is our personal presence here.”
In recent months, legal actions demanding compliance with administrative requests have increased due to lack of response. Nevertheless, even with more court appeals, administrative tasks, like case consultations, remain necessary.
“We have no access to anything,” the lawyer lamented.
“This inaction creates a limitation for immigrants,” who “don’t have documents, don’t have guarantees for anything because, without documents, a person is invisible, undocumented, unable to leave Portugal, access healthcare, or anything,” accused Elaine Linhares.
Without documents, a citizen is “nonexistent but continues to pay taxes and work,” she added, emphasizing that the state receives payment for the documents but then fails to respond.
Another leader of this movement, Patrícia Viana, accuses AIMA of not addressing the complaints from lawyers that have existed for a long time.
Under administrative law, “we have the right to priority access to process consultations because we are here defending our clients’ constitutional rights, yet we just arrive here without any right to consultation,” the lawyer asserted.
Furthermore, “we don’t even have a complaints book,” as is customary in public administration.
“I tried to file a complaint, but they gave me a blank sheet,” illustrated Patrícia Viana.
Efforts to obtain a comment regarding the protest and complaints from AIMA’s management have so far been unresponsive.
