Authorities are truly cracking down on the criminal networks that brought thousands of people into Portugal from non-EU countries on false pretences.
It is no longer enough that people may have ‘residency permits’: if these are found to have been obtained on the back of fraudulent claims, they can be revoked. And this is what the country’s PSP police force is proposing.
Just this year, PSP border control agents working out of Lisbon airport have flagged over 1,000 residents who appear not to be ‘kosher’: either the documents they presented to back up their claims for residency were forged, or they are found, as individuals, with ‘conduct incompatible with rules associated to legal permanence on national territory”.
This latter failing is not explained in any way in the Lusa text on this situation (but it may refer to the ‘new residents’ having criminal records in their own countries). Whatever the case, shows the zeal with which authorities are now approaching Portugal’s rising number of ‘new residents/ new citizens’.
It is an area that already sees the country bitterly divided: there are those who believe ‘the more the better (due to the need for foreign labour/ growth of the economy), while others see a country buckling under unsustainable pressure (without the health/ habitation/ general infrastructure) to absorb so many arrivals from different cultures.
Then there is the stark message coming out from the United States of America: that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” and that if things are allowed to continue in the way they have been, in 20 years or less Europe will not look like Europe anymore – and may not even be a valid partner for NATO membership.
So much seems to be ‘up in the air’ – and adding to the workload of AIMA (the agency for integration, migrations and asylum), the 1000-plus proposals to remove residency will now have to be duly analysed for a final decision.
Summing up their efforts this far, the PSP emphasise that “the increase in the number of proposals (this year) reflects the strengthening of detection capabilities, improved verification procedures and close cooperation between the police and AIMA.”
According to the public security police force, this joint effort aims to ensure the ‘credibility and integrity of the immigration system, as well as the protection of internal security’.
The PSP guarantees that it will continue to carry out “rigorous border control measures, in coordination with the competent authorities, in order to ensure compliance with the law and the regularity of foreign citizens’ stay in national territory”.
Source: LUSA
