During a visit to Rua do Benformoso, Rua do Martim Moniz (Lisbon) where a controversial police operation took place, Mariana Mortágua says that "the data shows that there is no association between crime and immigration".
There is a “racist campaign”, a “hate campaign” and a “lying campaign” in Portugal, which “takes advantage” of immigrants to make “political propaganda”, said Mariana Mortágua this Thursday, during a visit to Rua do Benformoso, the street of Martim Moniz (Lisbon) where there was a controversial police operation a few weeks ago. This was a police operation in which, according to the leader of the Left Bloc, people who “work and pay taxes” were cornered and searched “without any reason or suspicion”.
During a visit by Mariana Mortágua to that area of the Portuguese capital – where a large number of immigrants of Hindu origin and other origins live –, the leader of the Left Bloc (BE) said that she wanted to “put into image what all the statistical data says”, which is that “there is no association between crime and immigration” and that “the immigrant population in Portugal works and contributes”.
Most of the immigrants I spoke to told us that they work and pay contributions, but despite this, many are unable to obtain documentation. In other words, the bureaucratic incapacity of the Portuguese State is an obstacle to their integration, despite the fact that they already contribute to the State and to Social Security,” stated Mariana Mortágua.
The Bloco leader says that the immigrants who live there feel “fear” and, in addition, “there is a feeling of shame, of people who immigrated to have a better life, pay their taxes and, suddenly, there is a day when they are cornered and searched without any reason or suspicion”.
The political debate that arose from this police operation shows, in Mortágua's analysis, that “this street is being used for a hate campaign, a racist campaign and a lying campaign”.
In fact, the Bloco leader says she spoke to “business owners who report that when there is a security problem, such as a broken window in a car, they call the police and the police, when they realize that it is an immigrant, do not come to assist them”.
A demonstration on these issues is scheduled for this Saturday in Lisbon. Mariana Mortágua took advantage of the journalists’ microphones to announce that the demonstration will start at Alameda, at 3:00 pm, and is an initiative that “brings together political and social movements and immigrant communities”. The Bloco leader asked that this demonstration “be a moment of unity” around the integration of immigrant communities.