Another immigrant shop-keeper in Lisbon has been seriously injured in a knife attack with an assailant intent on stealing the shop till.
The young man ‘fought back’, in spite of receiving various stab wounds to his chest – and managed to tear-off the ‘balaclava’-type face covering that his attacker was wearing.
The incident was filmed by the shop’s CCTV cameras, which means that PJ police now investigating will have quite a lot of ‘evidence’ to sift through.
The attacker eventually made off with the till that he had initially walked in demandeding. This was later found empty close by.
The attack took place on Thursday evening in Rua do Campolide.
The injured shop-keeper was transported to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital “with serious injuries”, reports Correio da Manhã, which today also brings the story of two men ‘breaking into a house in Moura where 10 immigrants who work in agriculture were sleeping’.
The men attacked two of the immigrants and then ‘set light to the house’, says the paper.
These are just two of the latest ‘incidents’ that have been happening in the wake of an atmosphere of ‘generalised negativity towards immigrants’ that authorities try to stress is completely unwarranted.
Expresso this week, for example, carries a story on how immigrants have paid €3.1 BILLION into Portugal’s Social Security system, just in the first 10 months of this year. It is five times more than any financial support that is eventually paid out to foreigners in situations of vulnerability – and shows-up the ‘irrelevance’ of billboard messages used by right-wing party CHEGA for the current Presidential elections.
The next few weeks will see the ‘race’ by candidates standing in these presidential elections intensify. Meantime, the message conveyed by immigrant leaders after recent stabbings (at least two of them fatal) will almost certainly be repeated: ‘Hindustani/ Asiatic’ shop-keepers are urged to close their businesses in day-light and not to work ‘alone’. Thursday’s incident played out when the young shop-keeper was the only member of staff on the premises.
Correio da Manhã/ Expresso (economia)
