The protest was attended by more than 50 immigrants, in protest against delays of AIMA. Demonstration was promoted by the association Immigrant Solidarity.
Azis is one of the immigrants who participated this Wednesday morning in the demonstration with the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), in Porto. It held a sign that read: “we are immigrants not criminals.” Azis is a “worker”, has been in Portugal for more than three years and says that on the first day he arrived got a job. Still, its regularization process is not completed.
“We are suffering, we have been here for years, we have been working, we have been discounted for Social Security” and we have not received “the AIMA card”, complains. The 30-year-old wants to have his situation done to be able to return home. “Every day we wake up and we know we can’t go see our mother,” Azis admits.
“I’m from Morocco, but here are people from all over the world: from India, Brazil, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Algeria” in the same situation. Azis says that Portugal is a democratic country, “good”, “with good people”, but “AIMA is treating us as if we are not people”. I would like to “live how we are suffering,” he adds.
Unlike Azis, Louis (prefer not to say his nickname) did not know that this protest was going to happen, but observes the group of protesters. The 29-year-old also arrived two and a half years ago from Brazil in search of a “better place”. Unlike the woman who submitted the application at the same time as he, the Brazilian does not yet have the documents of residence permit.