Thousands of illegal immigrants will have benefitted from scam, says police chief
Giving more details on the gang arrested yesterday on suspicions of a major immigration scam, the director of the PJ’s central directorate told a press conference this morning that an alleged “mole in the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs” will have been crucial.
“We are talking about thousands of people”, Avelino Lima told journalists. “We have no doubt that many of them, with greater or lesser effort, would be able to regularise their situation (in Portugal), while others will have to have everything reviewed, certainly.”
According to the director of the PJ’s ‘Centre region’, the thousands of immigrants came from “a Portuguese-speaking country in South America* and Hindustan”.
The PJ announced early this morning that it dismantled an alleged organised criminal group on Tuesday dedicated to the repeated crimes of aiding illegal immigration, corruption, money laundering and document forgery.
A total of 13 people have been detained – including seven businessmen, a lawyer and an employee of the Directorate-General for Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The detainees – six of them foreigners – are aged between 26 and 64 and have no known criminal records.
At the press conference in Coimbra, Avelino Lima explained that the immigrants were recruited by the group on social networks and were told of ‘opportunities and facilities’ in exchange for payment of ‘a significant sum’.
“Then there was a network that did all the work to enable these immigrants, once they arrived here, to legalise their status. Many of them never even set foot on national territory, but had residence permits, with repercussions in terms of taxation and social security, which is a worrying reality that is becoming increasingly serious,” he said.
Lima told journalists that this organised group with ‘very clear tasks’ began operating in early 2022, with consultancy companies being set up for this purpose.
The services for which immigrants paid included obtaining work contracts, Tax Identification Numbers (NIF), Social Security Identification Numbers (NISS), National Health Service (SNS) Patient Numbers, translation and certification of criminal records, opening bank accounts, residence certificates, among others.
“Unfortunately, we had a mole in the ministry (of foreign affairs) who ceased their activity yesterday (Tuesday). They played a key role, because they ended up giving veracity to false facts,” said the PJ director, adding that investigations into this scam will be continuing and “it is very possible that there will be more detentions”.
*There is only one Portuguese-speaking country in South America: Brazil. ND
Source material: LUSA
