The pensioners of Ajuda will protest against the decision of the Government and the Lisbon City Council to install an accommodation center for immigrants in the place where housing and a nursery had been promised.
The retirees of Ajuda, in Lisbon, have a Human cordon to demand the construction of a home and a daycare in the parishplanned for the Belém military hospital, but where the Government decided to house the immigrants.
“What we want is for the mayor of Lisbon (CML) to stop playing with the population of the parish of Ajuda and for the Government itself to assume that it is necessary to make available the spaces we have here in the parish and near the parish ( …) to create social facilities and to create affordable housing, since not even in terms of social facilities we have anything for the elderly and the less elderly. [tenham] a decent life, not even in terms of housing,” Vítor Pereira, president of the Unitary Commission of Retirees and Elders of the Parish of Ajuda (CURIFA), told Lusa.
The official highlighted that the population of Ajuda, the municipality and the mayors of the parish have been fighting for the creation of an intergenerational establishment with a home and support equipment for the elderly who live in the parish at the Belém military hospital, located in Boa Time, nurseries and other equipment, with “the commitment of the Chamber, of the previous executive and also of this”They were going to work to make this happen.”
“Apparently, the President of the Chamber, at this moment what he is doing is delaying the process, pushing this to the Ministry of Defense, saying that the equipment is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense and that, in the parish of Ayuda, it has not yet “There is space to manufacture the equipment that the population demands,” he highlighted.
For this reason, CURIFA decided to schedule a meeting and a human cordon for Saturday, at 10:00 a.m., in Largo da Boa Hora.
Vítor Pereira warned that in the parish “the land that belonged to the State has been transformed into closed condominiums” and refuses to allow the Lanceiros 2 barracks and the Belém military hospital, two state buildings close to the parish, “to be transformed into more closed condominiums”, arguing that they should have as a priority “the creation of social facilities for the population of Ajuda.”
“Let’s tell the president of the CML and the ministries of Defense, Social Security and Health that enough is enough. Either they commit to us, in black and white, to undertake the creation and construction of social facilities for the parish and affordable housing, or else the population’s struggle will intensify,” he added.
Ajuda is one of the parishes of Lisbon with the oldest population, without the necessary support infrastructure.
“Currently we have elderly people who, in order to find housing at an affordable price, are moved hundreds of kilometers from the parish. We have some that are, for example, in Oliveira do Hospital. And that is really inhumane,” she highlighted.
On June 4, an official source from the cabinet of the Minister of the Presidency, in response to questions from Lusa, revealed that the temporary reception center for immigrants will be located in the building of the former military hospital of Belém, in Ajuda. The location was chosen “by consensus” between the Government and the Lisbon City Council and managed by the latter.
Temporary immigration reception center will be in the old Belém Military Hospital
In statements to journalists, the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), highlighted that the choice of the location for the installation of the center for immigrants corresponds to the Government.
For his part, the president of the Ajuda Parish Council, Jorge Marques (PS), reminded Lusa of “the commitment” of the municipality to build an intergenerational center in the old military hospital of Belém, “with residences for the elderly, with daycare centers.” .
Jorge Marques accused the municipality of Lisbon of “betrayal” and, without “questioning the need to find a solution” to the “humanitarian problem” of homeless migrantsopposes this solution.
Source: Observadora
