The association Solidariedade Imigrante regretted this Wednesday the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Member States on asylum and migration, warning that Europe cannot become a fortress and that this legislation will increase human trafficking.
In statements to Lusa, the president of the association highlighted that this new legislation provides for the creation of prisons in the border countries of the Union, where illegal immigrants who arrive in these countries must wait until they receive an expulsion order.
“This, for us, goes against the evolution of civilization itself and the world. TO Europe cannot be a country transformed into a true fortress for those who contribute so much to the development of this Europe and to the wealth of all of us, from an economic, cultural and social point of view,” defended Timóteo Macedo.
“We are clearly against these retrograde positionsthat do not contribute anything to making Europe a humanist Europe that is in solidarity with the people,” he added.
For the Council of Europe, these new rules will provide a more effective asylum system, which will increase solidarity between member states, but for the president of Solidariedade Imigrante this argument is a lie, pointing out that it is a solidarity “in the sense that the central objective countries [da Europa] pay not to receive [imigrantes] “.
“People are not part of any business in the European Union. People are people who want to survive.who want to move forward, who are not an obstacle for this Europe,” he defended.
In this sense, he highlighted the most recent results of the Migration Observatory, which revealed that immigrants, in Portugal, were responsible for more than 1.6 billion Social Security contributions, a value seven times higher than what they earned. .
After pointing out that he does not share this economistic vision of the role of immigrants, Timóteo Macedo highlighted the “immense” contribution they make to “this small country here by the sea” and maintained that “all European countries need millions of immigrants to be able to continue paving your way.”
In the opinion of the president of the association, this new legislation “is a clear food for the far right”, which in addition to increasing feelings of xenophobia towards immigrants, will also result in an increase in human trafficking.
“The more restrictive policies become, the more fuels human traffickingpeople will pay more [aos traficantes]”People want to live and Europe has to understand it,” he stressed.
Timóteo Macedo believes that this legislation could also have an impact in Portugal, especially in terms of pressure from the extreme right, which wants to review the immigration law and the entry of immigrants into Portugal, “with clearly xenophobic pretexts.”
For this reason, he maintained that Portugal must maintain the laws it has and develop responses regarding housing, work and respond as quickly as possible to the regularization processes that are pending documentation.
“We will be attentive, we have always fought and we will continue fighting so that immigrants are respected with dignity,” he concluded.
The European Parliament and the Member States today reached a political agreement on a comprehensive reform of the asylum and migration policy of the European Union (EU), after a final night of negotiations, which includes a series of texts and provides, in particular , a reinforced control of migrant arrivals to the EU, closed centers near the borders to more quickly return those who do not have the right to asylum and a mandatory solidarity mechanism for the benefit of states under migratory pressure.
After this Wednesday’s provisional agreement, technical work continues to finalize the details of the new regulation.
The objective is for there to be definitive approval, given the necessary negotiation process until the European elections in June 2024, to equitably distribute responsibilities between Member States and act in solidarity when addressing migratory flows.
Source: TSF
