The story of a Pakistani immigrant who trusted a recruiter in Pakistan to find him work in Portugal is just one of 72 where foreigners have had their residence permits cancelled ‘over their heads’.
According to the lawyer representing the Pakistani citizen, known for the time being as M.K., his client risks having to leave the country in 20 days, in spite of the fact that he has been working in this country since 2019 – and paying social security contributions.
M.K. is aged 33, and lives in the Lisbon area with his wife, 37, and two children, aged seven and eight, who all joined him about two years ago.
Lawyer Túlio Machado Araújo has told Lusa that M. K. always thought that the people he paid in 2019 to arrange his transport and settlement in Portugal had taken care of everything legally.
“The only thing that made him suspicious was that when he arrived, he was not paid a salary,” he said, adding that his client believes that the revocation of his residence permit may have been due to irregularities in the social security records of one of the companies that hired him.
According to the notification by AIMA (the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) cancelling the 72 residence certificates, the decision was based on the alleged use of false residence certificates in the process of legalisation.
The use of ‘false residence certificates’ has been an issue widely discussed in recent years – and a flagrant play of Portugal’s system for ‘legalising’ foreigners.
In the communication dated earlier this month, reported on Saturday by Público and to which Lusa had access today, AIMA justifies the decision on the grounds that the foreign nationals used a company that is involved in a case of aiding illegal immigration, which was brought before the public prosecutor’s office in July and in which Túlio Machado is unaware that M.K. is an official suspect.
“From the information provided in the indictment, it is clear that the foreign nationals obtained their residence permits on the basis of false and misleading statements, false and/ or forged documents obtained by fraudulent means,” AIMA stresses, arguing that this justifies the decision to cancel the permits.
The agency adds that, “given the nature of the case,” an “urgent decision” is required and that, therefore, “the preliminary hearing of the interested parties should be waived in order to ensure the practical effects of the administrative act.”
This means that M. K. has 20 days to voluntarily leave the country without the right to be heard – a period that his defence is trying to extend, since AIMA itself points out that this can be requested if there are children attending school (which there are).
Túlio Machado Araújo’s legal challenge does not suspend the countdown to leave the country, adds Lusa, “at the end of which the Pakistani immigrant may be detained and forcibly removed from national territory”.
Lusa says it has questioned AIMA on the grounds for cancelling 72 residence permits without the original case having been tried and proven in a court of law. It is still awaiting a response.
The 72 citizens concerned are from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Egypt and Morocco, and almost all reside in the Lisbon metropolitan area.
Source: LUSA
