The coordinator of the Left Bloc (BE ), Mariana Mortágua, criticized the "policies of hate" against immigrants and stressed that "they are not enemies" and contribute almost half a million euros to Social Security. "They are not enemies. Just because they have a different skin color or because they come from another part of the world.
They come to work like us and in search of a better life", he argued, during an initiative with immigrants and BE activists , in Beja. Portugal's duty "is to create public services that allow everyone to live well and to guarantee, assume and recognize that immigrants today make a contribution that is equivalent to almost half a million pensions for our elderly".
"Almost half a million pensions, which are immigrants' contributions to Social Security ", he stressed, arguing that it is "this recognition" that Portugal owes to immigrants and "not the hate policies that later give rise to these riots and disagreements that we have seen at AIMA ". Questioned by journalists, Mariana Mortágua was reacting to the peaceful protest of dozens of immigrants that took place near the facilities of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), in Porto, and to the intervention of the police to remove a man who infiltrated the protest with anti-immigration words and clashed with the demonstrators.
"It's not good for anyone, because we want a country that welcomes everyone, that lives well and with dignity. Portugal needs immigrants. It has had a development model, for better or for worse, that needs this immigrant workforce," he argued.
And in a district like Beja, geared towards the agricultural sector, Mariana Mortágua recalled that, "if it weren't for immigrants, there wouldn't be people to work in agriculture". "There are many places where it is thanks to immigrants that schools are starting to have children again. And Alentejo is also proof of this. Therefore, let's look at the positive side of this. We have people who want to make a life for themselves in Portugal, families who want to come to Portugal, who want to work in Portugal", he stressed, arguing that AIMA "still has a lot to do".