The mayor stated that there are numerous lawsuits against AIMA “for delays in the regularization of foreign citizens.” The attacks in Porto sparked new complaints about the agency’s operations.
The mayor of Porto considered this Friday that the operation of the Integration, Migration and Asylum Agency (AIMA) “reaches scandal forums” and that that entity “It is not fulfilling its mission.”
“AIMA does not comply with its obligations towards immigrants who want to legalize themselves in Portugal. Objectively, I think this is a scandal,” said Rui Moreira, in a press conference called by the mayor this morning.
Rui Moreira considered that the mission of the AIMA is “welcome and integration” of immigrants but that, “objectively, it is not working.”
Rui Moreira claims that the attacks on immigrants in Porto are unjustified. And he defends the extinction of AIMA
The mayor said that there are more than 7,500 legal proceedings against AIMA “due to delays in the regularization of foreign citizens”, which has generated problems: “At the same time that we want immigrants, we are not capable of welcoming them. “We have an institution that has the responsibility of caring for immigrants and they are not being treated adequately.”
And he continued: “What happens is that an IIllegal immigrants are subject to a series of pressures.particularly in its relationship with the labor market, it is a situation that worries me.”
Moreira defended that immigrants have to “have access to everything that the Portuguese have access to and, if they are not legalized, something is wrong.” He also criticized AIMA’s actions in the case of attacks on immigrants in Bonfim.
On the 4th, hooded men forcibly entered a house where a group of immigrants live in Porto, attacking them, an attack that was considered to have racist motivations.
Group armed with batons and knives attacks Algerian immigrants in Porto
“That Saturday, this agency called the Porto City Council to ask what the CMP could do with the immigrants. “This is your competition, with your resources, with your office here and you ask us?” asked Rui Moreira.
On the 6th, the independent president of the municipality of Porto considered this attack “unacceptable and a hate crime”, defending the extinction of the AIMA and the use of the resources at their disposal so that the municipalities can respond and reinforce the police forces with the resources they have. are currently missing to combat crime.
“I repeat, AIMA is an inoperative organization that wastes public money without fulfilling its proposed mission and, therefore, it must be extinguished,” he insisted, in statements at the beginning of the municipal executive.
On the same day, the aima workers union He warned that they will not be a “scapegoat” for “the inability of others,” describing as “unfortunate” the statements of the mayor of Porto who defended the extinction of that organization after the attack against the migrants.
AIMA workers will not be “scapegoats” for attacks on migrants
“AIMA and its workers will not serve as a throwing weapon or “scapegoat” for the manifest incapacity of others,” warned, in response to Lusa, the Union of Employees of the Immigration and Border Service (Sinsef).
Source: Observadora
