The president of the Immigrant Solidarity association today accused the government of betrayal by approving the Migration Action Plan and said he will fight to prevent it from coming into force.
“I think this government’s immigration plan is a betrayal of the solidarity and humanist spirit of the Portuguese people,” criticized Timóteo Macedo.
Today, the government presented the Migration Action Plan, which, among the 41 measures planned, includes the end of the so-called expression of interest procedure, which allowed a foreigner to enter Portugal and only then apply for a residence permit.
From now on, it will no longer be possible for a foreigner with a tourist visa to deal with their regularization in Portugal, requiring an employment contract or another solution previously dealt with by the Portuguese consular network.
The repeal of articles 88 and 89 of the Aliens Act, which allowed foreign tourists to be legalized in Portugal, will be followed by a “review of the [general] law in parliament” in the coming months.
For Timóteo Macedo, “it’s unacceptable” to put an end to this regime, denying that it was exceptional, as the government claims, and pointing out that “it’s ordinary”, stemming from immigration law.
“This was going on normally, with all the normalities, so it doesn’t make sense to put an end to expressions of interest, the initiative of foreign citizens who approach the Portuguese state in good faith,” he said.
For the official, this is a “betrayal of what was being done” and a “betrayal of the immigrants’ struggle”, who “fought hard” for there to be a regularization process.
“This plan is a disaster, a huge step backwards,” he said.
With regard to the consular network, he pointed out that there is a lack of conditions and a shortage of human resources, which has led embassies to hire “temporary work companies” to do consular work.
He stressed that Portugal needs and will continue to need “many more immigrants” and warned that these changes to the law will “feed the mafias without precedent”, especially the “white collar” mafias, predicting that “many contracts will be made without [the immigrants] being present”.
Timóteo Macedo recalled that in the past other governments have tried to implement a quota entry system, which was even rejected by a “former national director of the SEF [Foreigners and Borders Service]”, who “went public saying that it doesn’t work to hire people you don’t know anywhere, who you don’t know if they are competent in their profession”.
The president of Solidariedade Imigrante therefore believes that this new regime will feed human trafficking networks and contribute to an increase in cases of slave exploitation.
On the other hand, he admitted his disappointment, saying that he thought the action plan “would essentially solve the backlog, which is not 400,000, but much more”.
He defended the need to resolve the operating conditions of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), especially in terms of human resources, computer equipment and organization.
He also said that the “immigrants will be disappointed” and that the association will be attentive, leaving the guarantee that Solidariedade Imigrante will fight for the new legislation not to be implemented.
