The construction of two temporary centers to accommodate irregular immigrants will cost 30 million. Funding is provided by the PRR. The lack of centers explains the lack of repatriations.
The Government has approved the construction of two temporary accommodation centres for illegal immigrants, which will cost 30 million euros and will be financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) . One will be located in Odivelas and the other further north, and both will have the capacity to accommodate 300 immigrants.
The decision was approved this Thursday in the Council of Ministers. Leitão Amaro classified the measure as “necessary because “Portugal does not have the capacity to settle foreign citizens in an illegal situation”. This is why “Portugal practically does not carry out removal and return”, added the Minister of the Presidency in the press conference at the end of the meeting.
But that is not the only reason. There is also the fact that the SEF was dissolved without allocating this responsibility to the PSP. “We have already tried, but the other two parties with the most decisions have rejected it,” he said. Leitão Amaro also explained that there is a lack of temporary installation centers.
One of the centres will be built in Odivelas, on land that has long been identified for this purpose – “we lacked the money and political action”, said Leitão Amaro – and another further north, and “various possibilities are still being identified”. Together, the two centres will have the capacity to accommodate 300 people.
The Minister of the Presidency also revealed that the law promulgated by the President of the Republic has just been published, as well as an executive order signed by three ministers – Justice, Internal Affairs and the Presidency – which “allows us to resolve the precarious situation of residence visas for 220,000 foreign citizens” . This number has nothing to do with the approximately 400,000 that AIMA is dealing with, the official stressed.
At stake are 220,000 people from CPLP countries who received a residence permit, which was “a document that did not allow them to move around and which did not have fundamental security controls”, explained Leitão Amaro.
“With these two diplomas we are putting an end to this precarious title” which will be replaced “by a card that involves the collection of biometric data” in its granting and “the verification of the necessary documents” , said Leitão Amaro, indicating that the operation of collecting and replacing cards will begin next week.
“We say that Portugal has an immigration policy that privileges CPLP citizens but, by choice of the previous Government, we treated them as second-class immigrants”, because they did not have “a card that gave them mobility in the Schengen area”.
Leitão Amaro guarantees that the measure gives more dignity to immigrants and provides greater security to the country because biometric data is collected and documentation is verified. This also eliminates the risk of Portugal being subject to a process of infringement of European law, he explained. “ All of this is the result of the careless, disastrous and unregulated immigration policy of the previous government,” he criticized.
The Minister of the Presidency took the opportunity to stress that “the policy of wide-open doors is over”. “It is good for the world to know that, with the inauguration of this Government, the policy of wide-open doors is over. And it will not return with this Government ”. Leitão Amaro added that he will not “recreate expressions of interest in a light version ”.
“Portugal wants to welcome people well and in several sectors it needs to welcome immigrants, but with dignity and the ability to integrate, with control and rules”, he added.