Timóteo Macedo recalls that the end of the SEF and the creation of an organization that only deals with regularization and integration processes is a “very old demand of the associations.”
The end of the Immigration and Border Service (SEF) is generating expectations among immigrants who know the creation of the Integration, Migration and Asylum Agency (AIMA) and They expect more humane and faster treatment from the Portuguese State.
“I am not a criminal. I came here to do my job and escape crime in my country. “You can’t treat me like a criminal,” she told Lusa Rosângela Silva, a Brazilian who came from Goiânia to Lisbon, to try to “change her life forever.” How are Rosângela? Thousands of immigrants in limbo waiting for their cases to be resolved. and Timóteo Macedo, leader of Solidariedade Imigrante, one of the oldest associations dealing with the phenomenon, points to the SEF as responsible for the problem.
“There must be a relationship of good faith between everyone, if we really want a good integration of immigrants in Portugal,” he stated. hoping that AIMA “does well and much better, because it is impossible to be worse than it is,” That is why he considers that they only have to win.
Timóteo Macedo recalls that the end of the SEF and the creation of an organization that only deals with regularization and integration processes is a “very old demand of the associations.”
“I have always debated for many years, more than 10 years, for the administrative processes, the renewals, to come out of the SEF” and now, “they finally separated immigration from the police,” because “We should not look at emigrants with distrust.”
“Why didn’t the SEF work for two years? “He was using emigrants as a scapegoat, to apologize for everything and anything,” he accused. This blockade even led to non-compliance with the legislation by the State itself, in the case of family reunifications, a priority of the new AIMA, according to Minister Ana Catarina Mendes.
“There must be concrete accountability for these delays because the SEF, arbitrarily and illegally, did not comply with an article of a law that was dictated by the Assembly of the Republic,” in reference to family reunification. Just two weeks ago the new AIMA was presented at the Migration Council and Timóteo Macedo regrets that the associative sector has not been heard in the process.
“SEF employees arrive and things are going to change from one moment to the next?” —asked the leader, who accuses many of these employees of never having provided any service to immigrants. “We are aware of many cases of racism, authoritarianism, xenophobia and other things in these services. This cannot happen,” said the leader of Solidariedade Imigrante.
With a budget of 81 million euros, the new agency has 740 employees and plans to hire 190 new employees.
The new agency inherits 347 thousand cases and the priority will be to regularize, before the end of the year, cases of family reunification and, in the first quarter of 2024, the executive will launch, together with the municipalities and local immigration assistance offices, actions to resolve the processes pending, allocating more resources to resolve existing cases.
This effort will also include the placement of AIMA services in citizen businesses and the increase of 10 more service points that will be added to the existing 34. In the new AIMA “it is necessary to carry out a renovation, a cleaning, an important renovation of those who manage and organize the work,” warns Timóteo Macedo.
Without this, “things will not change,” he stated, highlighting that problems with immigrants’ access to the system have generated a series of intermediaries, such as “unscrupulous lawyers who take advantage to make a lot of money at the expense of human misery.”
In Lisbon, a year ago, Rosângela already gave up trying to resolve her case at the SEF. “I hired a lawyer to take care of things because I don’t understand things here. “And how much do you pay for the lawyer? Rosângela looks at the ground and does not want to give a specific figure. “It’s a lot of money, but what can I do? I want to stay here.”
Source: Observadora
