The Head of State, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, spoke about the thousands of notifications that are being issued by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum for the abandonment of national territory of foreign citizens in an illegal situation.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, made a surprise visit to Ovibeja this Sunday, where he was questioned about the more than 4,500 notifications for abandonment of national territory by foreign citizens in an illegal situation, which are part of a first group of 18,000 rejections already decided.
When asked by journalists if he had seen these numbers, Marcelo began by saying: "I have. Nobody really knows how many immigrants there are in Portugal. The latest figure says one million and 600 thousand. Then there are those who say it is a little more, a little less [...]. In the context of one million and 600 thousand it is very little."
When confronted about these departures, Marcelo recalled that Parliament approved "regulation" in the context that was not legalized and said: "Let's see exactly what the final number is."
"With this new law, which was a change in policy, we are now talking about the application of a law that corresponds to the regularization of 300 or 400 thousand people who had been in debt for three years, since the SEF was practically extinguished. Soon, we will know how many were regularized. Certainly, many. 100 thousand, I don't know if 200 thousand", he said, minutes later.
"From my perspective, what needs to be seen is whether those who still need to be seen meet the requirements, whether they do or not, and what is the total number of those who, upon regularization, are forced to leave as a result of the new law. Whether it is five thousand, ten thousand. This is to explain that there are mistakes that cannot be made", he considered.
When asked about a possible disappearance of immigration in Portugal, Marcelo pointed out: "This is a collapse in the economy of Portuguese society. We are talking about a million and something and that supports various sectors of Portuguese society."
The head of state said that it was a "great lesson" and that "we should not go three years" without dealing with this matter. "200 or 300 thousand people were left hanging," he said.