Three years ago it is impossible to start the family regrouping process without appealing to court. Thousands of immigrants live prisoners in a limbo, although they comply with all the conditions that the law already required. They have accommodation, money to support the family, but do not get vacancies to start the process. In the week when Parliament approved more rigid rules, we show you what it is today, to an immigrant with the regularized situation, trying to gather the family in Portugal.
The great report SIC follows the stories of four immigrants in Portugal. Hadi Sheikhnejad, specialist in insects and agricultural pests, came from Iran. Maria do Socorro Costa, hairdresser, came from Brazil. Muhammad Asadullah, Engineer softwarecame from Pakistan. António Mambene, bricklayer and group, came from Guinea.
In 2023 the government of António Costa extinguished SEF and created AIMA, an agency for integration, migrations and asylum. No means to deal with an inheritance of almost half a million pending cases.
The absence of vacancies for requests for family regrouping has maintained, since 2022, thousands of immigrants in a scenario of uncertainty and legal insecurity.
Years of waiting for scheduling, systematic defaults on response deadlines for residence authorization or family regrouping, accumulated to the thousands in the courts. In September there were about 100,000 subpoenas to defend rights, freedoms and guarantees. Urgent processes to summon AIMA to comply with the law.
Immigrants, people like us, are the indispensable labor force in various sectors. Like so many Portuguese emigrants spread around the world.
In 2024, immigrants contributed to social security five times more than they received in state social benefits.
For the right to live in a family, defended in the Constitution, they face exhausting battles in a bureaucratic maze that keeps families separate, unknowingly until when. Families like ours.
Report: Miriam Alves and Paulo Cepa (Image)
Image Edition: Rui Berton
Editorial Production: Diana Matias
Audio Post Production: Edgar Keats
Coordination: Miriam Alves
Direction: Marta Brito dos Reis, Bernardo Ferrão
