Tackling Portugal’s immigration struggles is one of the government’s top priorities
Portugal’s government has accepted a proposal from the High Council for the Judiciary (CSM) to create a specialised court for issues relating to immigration and asylum.
The news was broken this Thursday by Público newspaper, which reports that the court will have exclusive jurisdiction “in everything related to immigration and asylum, from the detention and expulsion of migrants to cases involving unaccompanied minors (or those accompanied by people whose relationship is unknown), and ending with administrative asylum and residence permit processes (typical of administrative courts),” citing CSM member Tiago Pereira.
The court will be established in Lisbon and, possibly, later in another city. Its proposed name is Immigration and Asylum Court, although no final decision has been made regarding its official name.
Luís Azevedo Mendes, the vice-president of the CSM, has since elaborated, telling Lusa news agency that he believes the new court can be up and running “within a few months.”
The idea is part of the government’s new Action Plan for Migration presented by the Government on Monday and has the full support of the vice-president of CSM, who highlights how administrative courts are currently “overloaded” with requests from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).
“The requests are coming in, about 100 per day, and it is, therefore, an overwhelming situation for the administrative courts, but it also puts pressure on the judicial courts in terms of validating the detention of asylum seekers and, subsequently, in issues of family reception and integration, which falls under the family and minors court,” explained the judge.
Azevedo Mendes also fears that the government’s decision to end the “manifestation of interest” regime will also lead to more immigrants in an illegal situation, putting even more pressure on courts.
“All situations of departure/expulsion decisions will have to be decided by a court. Therefore, we are talking about a set of situations that will put a lot of pressure on the courts and advise the creation of a specific court for immigration and asylum, which can innovatively combine everything that is administrative jurisdiction — under the CSTAF — and judicial courts, under the CSM,” he said.
One of the main advantages of having a specialised court for these matters is the possibility of bringing together several social support measures for migrants, such as translators, experts, or lawyers, in a single structure.
He also emphasised that this “is the time” to move forward, recalling that immigration and asylum laws “will have to be changed following the approval of the Migration Pact by the European Parliament last month”.
“Those who are here to stay, stay; those who are meant to leave, should leave immediately and stop putting pressure on our streets — as is clearly visible to everyone — nor on the Social Security reception structures, which are currently scarce and insufficient. The delay and inefficiency of the system result in expense; it is too costly not to address these matters seriously and efficiently,” he added.
Source: Público/LUSA
