Portugal rejects “aggressive policies against immigrants”

Minister of the presidency, António Leitão Amaro, has stressed Portugal wants to be a voice of reason at the Ibero-American Forum on Migration and Development, opening tomorrow in Huelva, Spain, at a time when other European countries are pushing for aggressive policies against immigrants.

“This meeting is yet another opportunity for Portugal to demonstrate and defend its moderate approach to migration policy on the international stage, at a time when many countries, particularly the more developed ones, are aggressively closing their doors and sometimes focusing on developing disproportionate solutions that may undermine fundamental rights,” said the minister who has been the government’s public face in the tightening of Portugal’s migration policies, compared to those of the previous administration.

European countries should impose rules and regular channels, he stresses, but they should not close the doors to immigrants altogether.

“We are certainly tightening our rules; we have significantly increased controls, but we always seek to do so while preserving fundamental rights, and adopting an approach that is also very much focused on the integration of those who arrive – a more humanistic integration,” he told Lusa.

Leião Amaro will be taking part in the panel on “the study of labour migration programmes and circular mobility, promoting safe, orderly and regular routes, adapted to the needs of labour markets”. He said the aim is “to share the commitments that Portugal has adopted at the United Nations, which are an important commitment to maintaining a flow of immigration, whether for work or study”.

However, he warned that this flow involves passing “through consular posts with all the necessary security checks”, seeking to ensure that this “safe and regular immigration” involves “employing companies in the integration process”, alongside a “significant effort at the domestic level for the entire documentation process and support for the integration of children”.

The ultimate goal is for the “path to integration into society to be a holistic one; only then is the immigration cycle truly safe and secure from the perspective of safety for the national community, but also safety for the immigrants themselves”, he said.

Portugal is a major destination for immigrants from Latin America – particularly from Brazil and Venezuela, with a steady increase in Colombians.

Tomorrow’s meeting is therefore “an opportunity to establish controlled channels” and “training opportunities to facilitate what might be called circular migration”.

In these cases, Leitão Amaro explained, “people have qualifications which they acquire in their country of origin or upon arrival in Portugal”, and, for a period, “contribute and work” in the country, with “enough time in their lives to be able to return and also share the knowledge they have acquired” in Europe.

The aim is “migration that is agreed between the two countries” and that “is beneficial” to both.

Portugal wishes to secure the support of sending countries for return procedures for those who enter irregularly: “We need their cooperation, because those who come to Portugal illegally cannot stay”.

The forum is taking place in Spain, a country that has already announced the regularisation of thousands of immigrants, a sign of a multi-speed Europe on immigration, something Leitão Amaro says he endorses.

“At every meeting of the European Union Council of Ministers, we witness these announcements of national policy and very different approaches,” he said.

Today, there are governments where public opinion is highly critical of immigration and “they are effectively adopting very aggressive measures”, particularly in central and northern Europe.

In Portugal, “the fact that our immigration policy changed significantly in 2024 and the flows have changed completely” is reducing the temptation for public opinion to call for more aggressive measures.

In the last two years of the Socialist government, “there was a huge increase” in immigrants in Portugal, but as “we reacted immediately and very strongly to the change in the rules, I believe it may be possible to achieve social cohesion and support for political reforms” to avoid a “public opinion dynamic that falls into the more radical rhetoric now being adopted in some European countries”, said the minister.

An example of this is the proposal, by some countries, for new rules of return, involving the “creation of detention centres for repatriation from the EU” in third countries outside the bloc – “kind of detention islands where children can be held”.

“This seems to us to go beyond what is acceptable and has meant that, on several occasions during the debate on such measures in the European Union, we have found ourselves isolated or in a minority,” Leitão Amaro stressed.

Source: LUSA