At a public meeting of the municipal executive, the vote was presented by the councillor of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE), Beatriz Gomes Dias, and was unanimously approved.

Among the homeless people staying the night in the Largo da Igreja dos Anjos, the BE concillor highlighted the existence of 30 Timorese migrants, recalling the proposal she presented and which was approved for the creation of a municipal emergency reception project of Timorese citizens, through a response in the areas of housing, work, health and education.

Presented more than a year ago, this proposal was approved in February.

In the vote of concern, BE reinforced that the proposal to create a municipal emergency reception project “remains valid” to support and monitor Timorese people who arrived in the city in recent months of Lisbon, through the provision of housing, work, health and education conditions.

Furthermore, the vote warns of obstacles that foreign citizens face when regularising in Portugal, including due to the decision of the Arroios Parish Council to require a valid residence permit (renting or purchasing a house) to issue residence certificates.

As part of the vote, PCP councillor João Ferreira said that the chamber is being asked to do more than express concern and argued that this situation “requires social intervention”, so the municipality must intervene “as quickly as possible”.

Currently, the executive of the Lisbon Chamber, which is made up of 17 members, includes seven elected members of the “Novos Tempos” coalition (PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança) – who are the only ones with assigned responsibilities and who govern without absolute majority – three from the PS, two from the PCP, three from Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), one from Livre and one from BE.