The Portuguese Government's promise to open family reunification processes before the end of the year is creating expectations among thousands of immigrants, who have been waiting for years for something guaranteed by law.
Guinean Indira Djaló and Senegalese Ansumane Té have been in Portugal for around five years and live alone, in the hope that the Portuguese Government will authorize their spouses to have visas.
“I pay my taxes, I clean for a company, I have my children at school and my husband cannot be with me”, laments Indira, who criticizes the slowness of the process.
Ansumane Té comes from Zinginchor, in the south of Senegal, and regularly teaches his youngest son the Portuguese language he learned in Lisbon.
“He already knows that he can only speak to me in Portuguese. I only speak our language when I go there”, says Ansumane Té, who has a regular situation in Portugal, but is unable to bring his family here.
"I've already asked a lawyer for help, I've already paid him and everything, but I don't know when it will happen"
“I don't know, I've already submitted the papers and I'm waiting. I've already asked a lawyer for help, I've already paid him and everything, but I don't know when it will happen. Do you know how things are?” – vents.
This was one of the themes of the visit, last week, by the president of the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA), Luís Goes Pinheiro, to the Solidariedade Migrante association, one of the largest in the country.
“They told us that they were going to open appointments (for family reunification) later this year,” Timóteo Macedo, director of the association, told Lusa.
“I know there are many challenges for AIMA”, stated the director, commenting on the new structure that replaced the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) in the management of immigrants in Portugal at the end of October.
In particular, Timóteo Macedo highlights that “family reunification is a legal obligation” and should constitute an “immediate task” for AIMA.
In total, there are around 300 thousand processes pending legalization in the system that are transferred from SEF to AIMA and the guardianship has already promised a response.
“People can't make appointments, they can't talk, they can't log into the system"
But Timóteo Macedo argues that any reform must require a change in procedures in appointments at embassies in countries of origin, which are involved in a “den of corruption” to ensure the scheduling of available vacancies.
“People can't make appointments, they can't speak, they can't enter the system and raise their problems and this is particularly serious in countries of origin”, he explains, highlighting that these problems are transversal and affect even those who have regular and he just wants to comply with a formality.
To counter this problem, the association suggested to Goes Pinheiro that, in cases where family reunification was authorized, “AIMA itself should request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to schedule” the people who will apply for the visa.
“It should not be the citizen who is far away who must request the appointment, often resorting to mafias or corruption” and “it would be simpler and more rigorous” if the Portuguese authorities created the vacancy in embassies abroad, he explained.
The leader fears that the country's political circumstances could jeopardize the start of AIMA's functions.
“It is essential that the new immigrant registration platforms and the system's response start to work, regardless of whether there is a managing Government or not”, explained Timóteo Macedo, admitting that the issue of immigrant entry could be a political issue.
“The issue of immigration can be raised by far-right parties. This is already what happens in other European countries, they want to take dividends and use emigrants as a scapegoat for the country's crisis situation.
But “I hope that the Portuguese people do not fall into the trap of this discourse”, he stressed, highlighting that Luís Goes Pinheiro seems to have a different discourse.
“AIMA says that immigrants are needed and does not have the far-right discourse. This alone is a step”, commented Timóteo Macedo, although criticizing the use of “economicist and utilitarian language” in relation to this population.
“I think people have the right to move on this planet, which belongs to everyone”, he stated, adding: “People with a lot of money always move, the poor are the ones who stay”.
A source from AIMA told Lusa that 14,000 requests for family reunification have already been authorized this year and that a solution will soon be made available to speed up this process, as part of the organization's reforms.
Speaking to Lusa, on the day AIMA came into operation, the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, promised that the priority will be to regularize, by the end of the year, “the issues of family reunification, which are absolutely essential ”.
This promise gives hope to Alexandra Veríssimo, who came to Portugal from Goiânia four years ago.
She is divorced and therefore does not think about bringing her husband. “I came to Portugal to escape [former Brazilian president] Bolsonaro and him,” she says, smiling.
Your request for family reunification is aimed at the mother and father. “I am the only support and I want them to be here with me to live in peace and safety in this country that I love.”
source: sapa24.pt