Call will begin next week, according to the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, António Leitão Amaro. At least 220,000 citizens will benefit from the new residence permit.
The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, António Leitão Amaro, said on Thursday (13/02) that the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) will begin to call, next week, the approximately 220,000 citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) for the exchange of the current residence permits, which have been expired for almost a year. These documents were issued on sheets of A4 paper and will now be in plastic card, valid for two years, within the standards set by the European Union.
The care of immigrants – mostly Brazilians – will be done in the 20 AIMA mission centers throughout the country. As reported by the Public Brazil, the employees of these centers have already been trained for this new stage of regularization of foreigners living in Portugal. In the first stage, the 440,000 immigrants who had expressed interest in living in Portugal were called. This expression of interest was extinguished in June last year.
The convocation of the citizens of the CPLP for the exchange of residences was possible after the publication, in the Diário da República, of the decree approved by the Assembly of the Republic and sanctioned by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. With the new titles, these immigrants will be able to circulate through the countries of the European Union. Because they are not recognized outside of Portugal, the current residence permits confined their owners in the country.
According to Leitão Amaro, the objective, with the exchange of residence permits, "is to end these precarious titles, in a paper, and replace them with a card that implies the collection of biometric data and the verification of the necessary documents." It will be, in his view, an operation that will give "dignity" to 220,000 people. “We are talking about indignity, because these citizens were in a worse situation than all foreigners (who live in Portugal),” he said.
The minister stressed that there is a view that Portugal privileges the citizens of the CPLP. “But in the past government, they were treated as immigrants of the second, because we did not give them, among other things, a card that gave them a card that gave them mobility in the Schengen Area, and they had to stay in the national territory. Now, it has complemented, at the same time that the Government will give "dignity" to immigrants, increase security for the country, because it will be known, with the collection of documents and biometric data, who is within the Portuguese territory.
No open doors
Leitão Amaro pointed out that the law approved by the Parliament and promulgated by the President of the Republic is accompanied by an ordinance signed by three ministers: he, the Justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, and the Internal Affairs, Margarida Blasco. “This allows us to resolve a precarious situation with the residence permits of 220,000 foreign citizens. We are not even talking about the 440,000 that AIMA is dealing with, we are talking about 220,000 who came to Portugal, received a residence permit that was demonstrated by a role that did not even allow them to circulate and that there were no fundamental security controls for a country that is strict, "he said.
He stressed that the new rules do not imply the return of the expression of interest or in a country with "open doors". “The policy of open doors will not come back. Portugal needs immigrants, we know that sectors of the economy need labor, but this channel needs to be regulated, "he stressed. The minister recalled that Portugal was subject to suffer an infringement process of European law, a situation that, with the new rules of the CPLP, will be resolved.
“All the problems were generated by the careless, clumsy, unregulated immigration policy of the previous government and which we, gradually, have been replacing. Therefore, with this, we have managed to give dignity and eliminate negative discrimination and, on the other hand, give more security to the country,” said Leitão Amaro.