Lisbon, Oct 25 (EFE).- Around a hundred immigrants gathered outside the Lisbon parliament on Friday to protest against the tightening of the law, approved by the conservative government in June.
The protest was organized by several immigrant groups demanding the return of the so-called “manifestation of interest,” a system that allowed foreigners with at least a year of contributions to Social Security to apply for residency and legalize their status.
This regulation was revoked in June by the government of Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro (centre-right).
“Since then, people have been left without an answer to regularise their status,” said Ana Paula Costa, one of the organizers and vice-president of Casa de Brasil.
Costa pointed out that there are increasing difficulties for immigrants in accessing public services.
“There are no appointments to renew residency permits,” she said, noting that more than 30% of all foreign residents in Portugal come from Brazil.
She also denounced a “growing anti-immigration sentiment in Portugal” that influences the government and directly blamed the far-right for promoting a “xenophobic and racist discourse” in the public sphere.
“Immigrants are human beings. We came here to work, not to sleep. We left our families behind,” an Angolan woman who wished to remain anonymous told EFE, as she held a sign that read, “Immigrant woman, the same struggle as slavery.”
She arrived in Portugal 15 years ago and managed to regularize her status through the manifestation of interest, but decided to be part of the protest to “fight for others.”
Megaphone in hand, she led one of the most heard chants at the demonstration: “Equal rights,” followed by others such as “Documents for all.”
On Friday, the Portuguese government insisted that it will not reinstate the “manifestation of interest” because it was a path that “subjected everyone who came through illegal routes to indignity,” according to Rui Armindo Freitas, Secretary of State for the Presidency, in an interview with the state broadcaster Antena 1.
“These new measures are what push people to mafias and fuel human trafficking. This is a true indignity,” said Timóteo Macedo, president of the Immigrant Solidarity Association and another organizer, to EFE.
A group of Bangladeshi citizens also participated in the protest, demanding the opening of a Portuguese embassy in their country to facilitate all processes.
“We need an embassy in Bangladesh because we cannot bring our families. We have to go to India for these situations,” explained Munayem Ahmed, a Bangladeshi who arrived in Portugal six years ago.
Approximately 50,000 citizens from Bangladesh currently live in Portugal, according to data from the Bangladeshi community in Lisbon.
The protest coincided with a week of unrest in Lisbon and the surrounding area following the death of a Cape Verdean shot by a police officer, reviving criticism of police violence from immigrant associations.
“Racism, xenophobia, and violence within the Public Security Police must end,” demanded the vice president of Casa do Brasil, who said this violence does not always result in death but “exists every day.” EFE
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