SIC News Interview
The Assistant Secretary of State for the Presidency and Immigration ccriticizes the opposition for rejecting the changes to the law proposed by the Government last year. In an interview with SIC Notícias, Rui Armindo Freitas holds Luís Montenegro’s Executive responsible.
The Deputy Secretary of State for the Presidency and Immigration, Rui Armindo Freitas, considers that the that arrived in Vila do Bispo, in the Algarve, “is a direct consequence” of the lead to the law changes proposed by the Government.
In an interview with SIC Notícias, Rui Armindo Freitas recalled that Luís Montenegro’s Executive presented a proposal to review immigration laws “in September last year” which provided for “the creation of a national unit of foreigners and borders” and the “reformulation of return rules”. The proposal ended up being rejected by opposition parties.
“The return rules we have do not serve us. We came to warn about this, but the Opposition parties failed the changes that the government proposed”, he indicated.
Rui Armindo Freitas mentioned that the case of migrants from Vila do Bispo is “a clear example” of the weaknesses of the current system. He explained that the citizens “were quickly attended to by the authorities”but ended up presenting asylum requests, which they consider “abusive”, and which cause the coercive removal process to be suspended.
“We are not talking about making the request unfeasible [de asilo]. The request was presented and was denied. In a continuous act, what these citizens did was present an appeal that has a suspensive effect”, he explained.
According to current law, migrants can only stay up to 60 days in detention centers. After the deadline, they are released. The Government now argues that the maximum period of detention should be extended to 180 days+180 days.
The Secretary of State classified further criticism from Chega’s leader “of enormous hypocrisy”. André Ventura had said that this release of migrants “shames the country”.
“Those citizens who are released and whom the Portuguese State was unable to carry out coercive removal They owe a thank you to Chega and the Socialist Party”, he said.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs c and that nothing now prevents migrants from staying in or leaving the country. Only one of them chose not to appeal the court decision and has already returned to Morocco.
