Immigrants with an expired residence permit – not of their own free will – went knocking on the door of the National Center for Support for the Integration of Migrants (CNAIM) in Porto yesterday in an attempt to obtain a solution to their problem. Without telephone or email service, a group from Braga organized themselves and went to the largest representation of the Agency for Migration, Integration and Asylum (AIMA) in the northern region to show their displeasure with the situation.
In view of the crowd of people, service tickets were distributed so that they would not remain in the place, confirmed the DN. Minutes before the arrival of the protesters, the information provided by the Center’s members was that “the vacancies for the day had already run out”, including a notice being posted on the door – which is always locked with a key.
“The security guards went out distributing password information precisely to empty the demonstration”, denounces Priscila Nazareth Corrêa, lawyer and organizer of the protest. The professional was received by the CNAIM coordinator and delivered seven petitions about cases that she considers “urgent” due to the government’s failure to renew CPLP titles.
This was the main reason for the demonstration, which brought together around a dozen people, on a very rainy and windy afternoon. Priscila said that among some of the cases presented are immigrants who have already received a letter of termination of their employment contract for not having the document renewed – the government did not provide a system for renewing CPLP authorizations, it only decreed that they are valid in the national territory until the 30th of June.
The problem, according to the lawyer, is that some private companies do not recognize this decree and require a renewed title to maintain jobs. “In one of the situations I presented, we have a mother, who is the head of the family alone with a daughter and who cannot be without a job,” she says. Another client of the lawyer was prevented from entering the factory where he works for the same reason.
There are those who have already been left without work due to the lack of a valid document. This is the case of Brazilian Guilherme Mayerhofer, who had his account blocked on an application that offers shifts as a waiter and other jobs.
Another difficulty encountered by the immigrant, who has a CPLP title – now expired – is that he was stopped at a traffic inspection when returning from work. “It was three days before it expired, the police said it was a close call that they didn’t arrest me, I don’t want to live illegally”, he explains. Guilherme did like thousands of other Brazilians and immigrants from Portuguese-speaking countries: he suspended the Expression of Interest (IM) to obtain the CPLP title, with a much shorter issuance period.
However, after a year, whoever made such a choice has an expired title and no possibility of renewing it. According to Priscila, the situation becomes even more worrying because having an invalid document prevents you from receiving unemployment benefits. “In other words, it’s knocking on the doors of the public administration twice. First asking for the legitimacy of the title to work. Then, once the renewal or the change itself is refused, these people are unable to receive their unemployment benefits because their documents have expired”, explains the lawyer.
According to Priscila, the person responsible for CNAIM in Porto asked for “patience” and that she would give an answer “after next Wednesday”. The site coordinator informed that she could not assist journalists and one of the security guards threatened to demand that the professionals leave the public road.
Another complaint from the lawyer and other immigrants who participated in the protest was the face-to-face service. “They just say there are no vacancies and close the door in the person’s face”, says the lawyer – which was also confirmed by DN on site. During the time the report was there, other immigrants were looking for answers and claimed that going to the location in person is the only alternative left after having exhausted the options of telephone calls and emails.
Priscila is also the author of an online petition that has more than 500 signatures. In the document, the lawyer proposes a series of measures to improve service, such as “establishment of a Procedural Conference between the following bodies: IRN, AIMA, NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE AND DGES, aiming to create unique procedures to be adopted in a generalized way between bodies” (…) in order to avoid conflicting decisions, which harm individuals so much”. Another demand is the creation of “a communication channel that aims to ensure access to essential services for immigrants, guaranteeing compliance with the Principle of Public Administration Efficiency, remembering that the current communication channel with AIMA via the website has not even responded to any of the requests made through a form, as is public knowledge”.
When questioned by DN, AIMA did not comment on yesterday’s protest in Porto. The request for comment on the attitude of security guards in closing the door in the face of users and the low number of passwords made available also remained unanswered.
