Around 50 organisations have scheduled a meeting for Saturday in an attempt to resolve the “desperation” of thousands of immigrants in the face of the new measures introduced by the government at the beginning of June.
Immigrant associations will discuss this Saturday new ways of raising awareness in an attempt to resolve the situation of thousands of “desperate workers” who have lost the right to regularise their situation.
Since the beginning of June, the amendment to the Immigration Act has “left the lives of immigrants in Portugal in uncertainty” by ending a right that allowed the regularisation of foreigners already working in the country, recalled the president of the association Casa de Brasil in Lisbon, warning of the “catastrophe” that is looming.
Toward People have been taken by surprise and there is great confusion in their lives, “because they don’t know what will become of them. But we already know that it will be a catastrophe, because now we have thousands of people without guaranteed rights, without being able to regularize their status,” Cyntia de Paula defended in statements to Lusa.
In an illegal situation, these people are more exposed to the risk of illegal immigration, poverty and social exclusion, recalled the representative of one of the 50 associations fighting to reverse the recent changes in the law.
According to the official, there are already cases of people who “were fired for not being able to regularize their employment,” but there are also reports of concern from employers: “They don’t know what to do, despite needing these people to work.”
The 50 organizations scheduled a new meeting for Saturday afternoon, at 3 p.m., at the Associação Solidariedade Imigrante, in Lisbon, to “make collective decisions” on the feeling of getting the new immigration law to once again provide for the right to express interest.
By revoking the expression of interest, the current administration eliminated “basic rights of thousands of immigrants who work and contribute to the country,” the meeting notice states.
“This will be an open planning meeting, in which we will collectively decide on the next steps and take stock of the meetings we have already had, both with the President of the Republic and with some parties,” explained Cyntia de Paula.
The associations’ agenda includes another meeting on August 14 with an advisor to the Prime Minister, but the organizations want to be received by Luís Montenegro, “as happened with the President of the Republic.”
“We asked for this meeting about a month ago and they responded saying it would be with the deputy, but yesterday we reinforced the request that we wanted to be received by the prime minister,” said the president of the Casa do Brasil.
Source: Observadora
