The PSD, CDS, PCP, PAN, and Livre reacted in the Assembly of the Republic to the new Action Plan for Migration, approved by the Council of Ministers.

The PSD, through the voice of Deputy António Rodrigues, praised “the note of humanism” in this Government proposal, highlighting “the concern to end the exploitation of workers” and “trying to eliminate human trafficking networks that exist within the country”.

For the Social Democratic deputy, the end of the expressions of interest procedure which, he said, “opened the door to immigration without any type of control, without any type of regulation” is a “necessary response”, as well as “the regulation of matter of CPLP visas”.

The plan includes “streamlining and prioritising immigrant entry channels” for family reunification, young students, qualified professionals, and nationals of CPLP countries.

The Social Democrats rejected the risk of an increase in illegal immigration because “there is a reinforcement of supervision by security forces and services” with the “creation of a unit that will regulate this same type of activity”.

Paulo Núncio, parliamentary leader of the CDS, began by holding the former PS Government responsible for the current situation and praised the decision of the executive, of which the centrists are part, to put an “end to the open door regime”, to have reactivated “supervision in the national territory of illegal immigration” and has increased the “capacity of temporary installation centres”.

Criticism

António Filipe, PCP deputy, criticised the Government's lack of speed in resolving “the problem of 400,000 pending residence permits at AIMA”.

“The Government recognises this problem, but points to a very vague solution of creating a mission unit, but without establishing any concrete timetable, any concrete objective regarding the human and physical resources that need to be made available to resolve this problem as quickly as possible”, he stated.

The communist deputy also argued that the Government “risks creating a problem” of an increase in illegal immigration of people who “later will have no legal possibility of regularising their situation”.

Representative Jorge Pinto, from Livre, said that this plan does not “bring any type of solution” and accused the Government of wanting to “recover electorate to the extreme right for the worst reasons and with the worst proposals”.

“It is a plan that the Government itself hardly believes in, certainly the Minister of Economy does not believe in this program, because it would represent additional difficulties for the arrival of new workers when these workers are essential for the country”, he stated.

The PAN, led by leader Inês Sousa Real, defended that “the extinction of expression of interest is a green way for companies and a red card for people” and criticised what it says is a “paradox” of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro when wanting to “guarantee a humanist integration policy” without wondering how we will “manage to have greater protection for migrants who are in a situation of social vulnerability”.

Inês Sousa Real also highlighted the Government's support for her party's proposal to “increase investment in learning the Portuguese language”.

The Government has put an end to the exceptional regime that allowed a foreigner to enter Portugal and only then apply for a residence permit and announced the creation of a mission structure to regularise pending processes, estimated at 400,000.

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