Brussels has agreed to ‘reassess’ Portugal’s immigrant situation after the government said ‘no can do’ to its plan to ‘redistribute’ 21,000 asylum seekers under the ‘European Solidarity Mechanism’.
The government’s reasoning is that the country is ‘already in a migration crisis’.
To be fair, it will be a tough job finding any European country that isn’t in a migration crisis – or is at least trying its damndest not to get into one.
When the European Commission first came up with this plan – in order to try and release pressure on countries like Spain, Italy and Greece – it stressed that ‘central and eastern European countries will have to offer assistance’.
Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic quickly said they would not be taking part – and Portugal cited the fact that immigrants in this country have quadrupled over the last seven years, and now number more than 10% of the population.
With a potential million-plus further immigrants ‘due’ if all those waiting for legalisation get it, and request ‘family reunification’, Portugal’s argument is that the country is already teetering on a point of cultural no return.
In a letter sent to the government yesterday, Magnus Brunner – the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration – said that the commission is “analysing the additional information recently provided by Portugal on the deterioration of the migration situation” and will carry out “a new assessment and propose appropriate follow-up measures”.
Lusa stresses that one of the reasons that Portugal voted in line with Hungary, Poland et al was because it considered the data on which Brussels’ decision was based to be outdated. “But even in spite of this refusal, eighteen countries, including Portugal, will have to take in these asylum seekers from June next year, or pay for others to do so”.
In his letter, Magnus Brunner also highlighted what he called the “significant increase, recently reported, in the number of deportation orders issued by the Portuguese authorities to third-country nationals found to be in an illegal situation”.
Regarding new rules that the government is promoting to speed up the deportation process, Brunner said: “We take note of the efforts your authorities are making to expand this capacity, which will be completed in the medium term.”
Source: LUSA/ Euronews
