People react to story saying “Why is this news?”
There has been widespread ‘surprise’ over a story published on the website of SIC Notícias today, referring to a 26-year-old detained in the Algarve “for illegal permanence in this country”.
Hundreds of comments under the story ask “why is this news; surely there are many more individuals in exactly the same situation of illegal permanence who have not been arrested; and does this mean he will be deported, or just ‘arrested’?”
Some dismissed the whole thing as “ridiculous”; others used it to discuss Portugal’s treatment of its colonies, or the fact that journalism these days has become “a stain”.
What could have been the point of such a story? Euronews website gives a clue: Denmark is apparently “determined to reach an agreement on return policy among members states by the end of its EU presidency” (running now).
EU ministers meeting in Copenhagen today have broadly endorsed two recent controversial proposals by the European Commission designed to curb irregular migration into the bloc.
These proposals involve what the commission likes to call “outsourcing to third countries asylum seekers and migrants whose claims have been rejected (ergo, people in illegal permanence in European countries).
Very much along the lines of the (failed this far) UK-Rwanda policy, “member states would be allowed to dismiss asylum applications without consideration, and transfer applicants overseas, even if the migrant has no connection to the place in question”.
Considering the fuss being made inside Portugal right now over the government’s proposals to stem uncontrolled migration – by amending the foreigners/ nationality laws – a great deal more appears to be coming down the line. Could today’s seemingly ‘ridiculous’ news about one 26-year-old man, identified in the Algarve, be a slow preparation for a future where these kind of arrests will become ‘the norm’?
The SIC article does say that GNR police, in the form of the force’s Unit of Coastal Control and Frontiers (UCCF) will be continuing with ‘checking operations’ of foreigners, “with the objective of controlling the entrance and permanence of foreign citizens in national territory”.
In this case, the young man is being taken before Lagoa court.
The next question has to be how does the GNR decide that people are foreigners (before they ‘check them’)? ND
Source material: SIC Notícias/ Euronews
