Migrant protesters in Portugal urge government to restore pathways for legal status

Lisbon: Dozens gathered outside Portugal’s parliament in Lisbon to protest the recent tightening of immigration regulations. Among the demonstrators were Bangladeshi migrants, who called for the establishment of a Portuguese embassy in Bangladesh to facilitate family reunification and streamline the immigration process for their families.

Around a hundred people gathered outside Portugal’s parliament in Lisbon on Friday (October 25), urging the center-right government to reinstate a policy that previously granted foreign nationals easier access to legal status.

The protest, organized by various migrant advocacy groups, called for the restoration of Portugal’s so-called ‘manifestation of interest’ system. This process used to allow foreign nationals with a minimum of one year of contributions to Portugal’s social security system to apply for residency and formalize their legal status in the country.

The protest took place during a tense week in Lisbon following the police shooting of a Cape Verdean citizen, an incident that has reignited migrant associations’ longstanding concerns over police violence.

In June, Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s conservative government repealed the policy, sparking frustration and concern among immigrant communities who relied on the ‘manifestation of interest’ system for legal regularization.

On Friday, the Portuguese government insisted that it would not reinstate the policy because it was a path that “subjected everyone who came through illegal routes to indignity,” Rui Armindo Freitas, Secretary of State for the Presidency, said during an interview with the state broadcaster Antena 1.

Timóteo Macedo, president of the Immigrant Solidarity Association, told Spanish news agency EFE that the government’s new measures are what’s pushing people “to mafias and fuel human trafficking. This is a true indignity.”

Since the Portuguese government repealed the policy, “people have been left without an answer to regularize their status,” said Ana Paula Costa, one of the organizers and vice-president of Casa de Brasil, a non-profit advocating for migrant rights in Portugal, with a focus on the country’s Brazilian community. Over 30 percent of all foreign residents in Portugal are from Brazil, according to Costa.

Costa said her association hasn’t received any requests to renew residency permits. She blames the country’s far-right for fueling a “xenophobic and racist discourse” in the public sphere, which she said has resulted in “growing anti-immigration sentiment in Portugal.” Costa also warned about the growing challenges immigrants face in accessing public services.

“Racism, xenophobia, and violence within the Public Security Police must end,” stressed Costa, adding that such violence is an ongoing reality for many, even when it doesn’t result in fatalities.

A group of Bangladeshi migrants also joined the protest in Lisbon, calling for the establishment of a Portuguese embassy in Bangladesh to streamline administrative processes.

“We need an embassy in Bangladesh because we cannot bring our families. We have to go to India for these situations,” EFE cited Munayem Ahmed as saying, a Bangladeshi who arrived in Portugal six years ago.

Approximately 50,000 Bangladeshi citizens currently reside in Portugal, EFE reported.

An Angolan woman who arrived in Portugal 15 years ago said that she had successfully obtained legal status through the ‘manifestation of interest’ process. Now, she hopes to support other migrants in gaining the same opportunities.

“Immigrants are human beings. We came here to work, not to sleep. We left our families behind,” she told EFE during the protest, holding a sign that read: “Immigrant woman, the same struggle as slavery.” Leading some of the protest slogans, she chanted “Equal rights” and “Documents for all” through a megaphone.