Police called to agency’s offices after hundreds of migrants complain of human rights violations
PSP police were called to two AIMA (immigration agency) offices today as hundreds of migrants complained their human rights were being violated.
At issue was the ‘running out of senhas’ (tickets that guarantee applicants will be attended that day).
Senhas frequently run out in government offices (Social Security/ Finanças/ Registo Predial/IMT, etc.) But in this case time is of the essence – emails that went out last week to applicants seeking residency permits/ family reunification and other matters, gave a specific time period for the payment up-front of costs, resulting in hundreds of migrants camping outside AIMA offices in Lisbon and Porto overnight.
Even so, many have found accessing senhas difficult; hence the ‘confusion’ generated in queues.
Sérgio Soares of the PSP Rapid Intervention team that is frequently called out to these situations, told Lusa today that the reason for the police presence is “to avoid any alteration to public order”.
In this latest case, like in others before, public order was maintained.
The confusion however has not been helped by the request to pay in advance for the total costs of applications.
As Lusa explains, for spouses of immigrants in a regular situation, the cost is €33; for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), the amount is €56.88; but for many, the total is closer to €400, to be paid in a few days.
AIMA has told Lusa that so far, “more than 50,000 users have expressed their intention to pay“.
But the complications involved in registering intentions – and incidents involving either attacks on immigrants or stories of violence/ crimes perpetrated by immigrants – have prompted the minister for interior administration to pledge a speedy ‘resolution’ to the situation.
“We are attentive, and the situation will have to be resolved very soon,” Margarida Blasco told reporters in Ourém (Santarém), where she was at the presentation of the Special Rural Fire Fighting System for 2024.
When asked how the government is going to resolve the situation, she said that it was a “human issue” that concerns everyone.
“That’s why the government will certainly resolve this situation as soon as possible, and then we’ll tell you how it is going to be done,” she said.
It was not a particularly illuminating statement, but it is all that we have been given this far.
Confronted with the news from Rádio Renascença that a nine-year-old Nepalese boy was “attacked” at a school in Lisbon, Margarida Blasco said: “What I can say is that, together with the police authorities, we are going to reinforce policing around schools and neighbourhood policing in order to put the system back in place to prevent crimes, which is a first phase.
“As a government, and we in the Ministry of Internal Affairs together with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, intend to implement faster, more effective programmes to prevent these situations,” she added.
Source material: LUSA
