Government to seek support from International Organisation for Migration
Using a rather confusing headline today, Expresso reports that the government will be seeking support from the International Organisation for Migration to repatriate immigrants acting on notifications to quit the country.
“Almost 1,400 immigrants ask for help to leave”, says the paper – referring to numbers in the last five years, not this year – and definitely not connected to the latest plan to cut down on residency applications stacked up at AIMA (the relatively newly-formed agency for integration, migration and asylum).
As for the latest plan, it is going forwards, slowly: the first notifications have been dispatched – giving a little more than 4,500 immigrants 20 days to leave the country or face expulsion orders.
According to the government, these initial notifications will almost certainly increase to cover roughly 23,500 immigrants, which will take statistics on refusals of entry to Portugal into “unprecedented values”, says Expresso.
The government is aware of the fact that many of these people will not have the financial wherewithal to return to their countries of origin – and thus the Ministry of the Presidency is in contact with the International Organisation for Migration (known here by its initials OIM) to ensure that they are given assistance.
The paper stresses that Portugal’s branch of OIM has helped an average of 275 people per year over the last five years, 88% of which returned to Brazil.
“This year, between January and April, 252 immigrants have already asked for help (to leave), of which 130 have already left, 103 of them being Brazilians. Among the other returnees have been Argentines, Pervuians, Indians, Colombians, Senegalese and citizens of Guinea, São Tomé e Príncipe and Mozambique”.
But the new takers for this kind of assistance are expected to be from the Indian subcontinent: it is these immigrants who have been most targeted in the latest notifications sent out earlier this month.
Vasco Malta, chief of OIM’s Portugal mission, has told Expresso that his organisation is talking with the government about a special protocol for these people, but it will not be easy.
“The project that we have in course, with European funding under FAMI 2030 (FAMI standing for the Fund for Asylum, Migration and Integration) allows us to support up to 590 people up to October 2026. It is not enough…”
A solution may have to be the creation of an entirely new programme, he said. But it is clear that the notifications to quit the country have not been made with any knowledge that the people affected will be in a financial position to comply.
Expresso’s article says the majority of people helped to return home ran into difficulties in Portugal due to lack of work; lack of housing. Quite a few were homeless, adds the paper – confirming stories that have appeared in the recent past.
Source: Expresso
