The government believes that adopting Chega’s stances, particularly on immigration, will prevent the party from growing, reflecting a lack of understanding of global events, stated Socialist deputy Pedro Delgado Alves on the second anniversary of the creation of the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA).
The government is validating the narrative of others, hoping for votes by agreeing with them instead of offering a distinct voice.
Additionally, the government is engaged in a “war of numbers” and hindering the publication of regular reports that would help distinguish pending processes from specific cases, he accused.
The original aim of AIMA was to separate administrative from criminal issues, which was a challenge, but the current government’s policies have intensified these challenges by associating immigration policy with previously nonexistent harshness, allegedly sacrificing migrants to avoid losing votes to the far-right.
Thus, AIMA appears to perpetuate a narrative framing the migration reality as the nation’s primary issue.
As an example of propagandistic communication, Delgado Alves cited the government’s estimated backlog of 400,000 cases at AIMA’s inception.
“It later became clear that these numbers did not represent 400,000 individuals,” he noted, pointing out duplicated scenarios, simultaneous pending applications, and cases no longer within national borders.
Social Democrat deputy António Rodrigues dismissed the criticism as isolated cases, highlighting the overwhelming number of processes burdening the administrative structure, creating immense pressure on the services.
However, Delgado Alves contended that the current situation is worse than before, regardless of the government’s claims of reducing the backlog significantly.
“Despite such claims, the permanent queues outside AIMA prove that the policy failed,” emphasized the deputy, accusing the government of attributing a “demographic engineering strategy” to the PS by allowing immigration, comparable to far-right rhetoric.
“It seems that only Portugal has migration flows and only here there is a need for non-national labor to stimulate economic growth,” Delgado Alves remarked.
