Portugal: thousands of people protest against immigration

“Not one more!” chanted thousands of people on Sunday afternoon in the center of Lisbon to protest against “illegal” and “uncontrolled” immigration, at the call of the far-right Chega party.

Singing the national anthem and waving green and red flags in the colors of Portugal, the demonstrators marched behind banners demanding the “end of massive immigration” and “the expulsion of immigrants committing crimes”.

“Immigration is very good” but “we need rules,” Cecilia Guimaraes, whose parents emigrated to Canada, explains to AFP.

“We emigrated legally. This is how it should happen in a developed country,” argues this 66-year-old teacher from Vila do Conde (north), who denounces “an increase in insecurity” which she fears is linked to upon the arrival of foreigners.

Like other European countries, Portugal is not able to control entries into its territory, other activists worry.

“All this generates a feeling of insecurity” because “we do not know their past”, observes Rui Afonso, Chega deputy, regretting that European countries are not able to welcome these candidates for office in a “dignified manner”. immigration who are sometimes “forced to live on the streets and fall into delinquency”.

Tensions in working-class neighborhoods

Approaching working-class neighborhoods, where many immigrants live, tensions arose during a face-to-face meeting between demonstrators and activists defending a Portugal open to foreigners.

Along the parade route, posters proclaiming that there is “no Portugal without immigrants” were stuck on walls and bus shelters.

This national demonstration was initially called for September 21 by Chega, the third force on the Portuguese political scene, before being postponed in solidarity with the victims of the wave of forest fires which affected the country.

In Portugal, the number of foreigners jumped by 33.6% last year, with it now welcoming more than a million immigrants, which constitutes around a tenth of the total population, according to an official report from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (Aima).

Brazilians, who number some 368,500, remain the main foreign community, followed by Angolans and Cape Verdeans. Indians (44,000) and Nepalese (30,000) also feature in the top ten, according to this report.

Tightening of migration policy

The moderate right-wing government decided in June to toughen migration policy. In particular, it repealed a provision, in force since 2018, allowing immigrants to request regularization by proving that they had worked for at least a year, even if they had entered Portuguese territory illegally.

Portugal currently has some 400,000 unprocessed regularization requests filed before the law was amended.

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