CHEGA leader warns “hundreds of thousands” could be arriving via ‘family reunification’
CHEGA leader André Ventura is calling for limits on ‘family reunification’ for immigrants who have navigated Portugal’s legalisation process, suggesting that while the government trumpets the ‘expulsion’ of thousands, “hundreds of thousands” could be taking their place as new residents apply to bring over close family members.
Portugal could go from its current one and a half million immigrants to two million “in a matter of months”, he told journalists in Loures today, where he was visiting yet another property found to be housing illegal immigrants (this time an evangelical church).
The situation, argued Ventura, is ‘unsustainable’.
It is not a question of being humanist (or otherwise), he stressed, it is much more a question of whether or not Portugal can cope with a new influx of foreigners (the vast majority of them from countries marked by comparative poverty).
“We have hundreds of thousands of people who still haven’t had their immigration situation resolved; we haven’t even managed to expel those we had notified that we were going to expel… I mean, are we going to let more people in”, he quizzed .
“It’s one thing for people to come from visible, notorious and understandable conflicts, as in the case of Ukraine (…) or women coming from Afghanistan. None of that applies to those who are here (in Loures): it is not women from Afghanistan who are here, around Arroios or in the centre of Lisbon,” he pointed out, arguing that “for the time being, nobody should have access to family reunification until the country has regularised half a million people.
“This seems obvious to me. We haven’t regularised half a million and we’re going to let in another half a million…” he repeated.
Ventura’s stand has almost certainly been prompted by the recent admission by AIMA (the country’s agency for integration, migration and asylum) that the number of resident foreigners in Portugal will undoubtedly increase with applications for family reunification from those who have been regularised.
Minister for the presidency António Leitão Amaro has promised ‘moderation’ – but the truth is that the right to family reunification is established by Portuguese law for anyone who has obtained a valid residence permit in Portugal.
In other words, the government’s hands are tied.
According to Lusa, of the 446,000 pending cases (the ‘half million’ that André Ventura is referring to) of expressions of interest that existed a year ago, around 170,000 have been extinguished due to a lack of response by applicants, and 35 have been refused, “but those cases that have been approved are entitled to apply for family reunification”.
Even for someone with limited mathematical powers, this leaves over 300,000 applications that may end up being granted, and each one of these will represent a person with a family that he may well want to bring to Portugal.
An official government source has told the state news agency however that ‘family reunification will be limited to the capacity of Portuguese society to integrate immigrants’. It is not clear how such an approach could work, given the law.
Certainly, visa consultants like Diário de Cidadania are already advising over how legalised immigrants can press forwards for family reunification, which, it says, includes the right to bring over spouses, children and parents.
In other words, for every legalised immigrant, at least four other family members could follow (this calculated on the basis of one child, one spouse and two parents).
“This is a good moment to seek advice from professionals or specialised associations”, writes Diário de Cidadania. ND
