It’s a divisive topic like few others. Carlos Moedas launched it to the political debate yesterday, defending the replacement of immigration quotas as a way to guarantee dignity to those who arrive. The answer from the PS was not long in coming: the authorities have been “cautious” in issuing visas and the mayor of Lisbon wants to shake off the “water from the mantle”.
In an interview with the newspaper Public It is Radio RenaissanceAgainst the background of the fire in an overcrowded house in the Mouraria district last Saturday, which killed two people, Carlos Moedas claimed that “there is a very serious problem of overcrowding” on the axis that runs from Praça do Chile to Martim Moniz, which he attributes to “immigration policies”. For the mayor of Lisbon, it is necessary to set quotas for the economic activities the country needs, and immigrants must have a work contract to enter the country. “We currently have people arriving in Portugal with no promise of work. Besides, there is a new visa, which makes no sense, that is a visa for people to arrive and look for work”criticized Coins.
For the PS, the problem is not immigration policy, but the action – or lack thereof – of Carlos Moedas. “Responsibility for housing in Lisbon lies with the mayor. The mayor of Lisbon must concentrate on his tasks, on his powers”, replied PS parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias, claiming that Moedas showed “a profound lack of knowledge about the visa issuance process, particularly with regard to residence permits”. “He speaks of quotas when the quotas have been suspended for years, namely by a decision of the government of which he was a part,” Brilhante Dias noted. Hours later, it was the turn of the PSD leader to also defend “regulated” immigration. Immigrants “should come to countries with dignity and to countries with labor contracts”, defended Luís Montenegro – “Of course regulated immigration assumes that people don’t come here to spend time, they come here to work. How is this done? We have already gone through a period where it was mandatory to have an employment contract to enter the country “and eventually for training actions that can cover the need for manpower”.
PR rejects “next door” answers
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa refused to get involved in the dispute (“I think it is premature to come forward with a position”), but went on to say that one should not answer “aside” the immigration problems. “It is a very easy solution to come and say: since we are not able to make the mechanisms for legalization and control of working conditions work, the best thing to do is to solve the problem at the root, it closes. As clearly is, this is a solution that is very easy”, but one should not “give an answer to the side that has nothing to do with certain problems”, underlined the President of the Republic. Is it time to open a debate on immigration in Portugal? “No, no. I think it makes sense to look at what the situation is and see if it really exists in the economy – they tell me it does – in the Portuguese economy, in addition to the doctrinal position on the movement of people, need of manpower”.
Source: DN
