The action targeted a law passed in March this year which limits the legalisation process for immigrants in Portugal. Anabela Rodrigues, of the Platform for Immigration and Citizenship (PIC), which organised the protest, explained that the law changes have made the legalisation procedure a harder bureaucratic process that now stops most immigrants who have been working in Portugal for years from becoming legalised.
In related news, Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes has accused Greek authorities of blocking the resettlement of 470 Yazidi refugees who want to come to Portugal.
Ana Gomes was speaking to Lusa News Agency after a joint press conference with fellow MEP the Austrian Josef Weidenholzer, who Ms Gomes has been working with to streamline the refugees resettlement process in Europe.
The press conference also heard from Yazidi doctor Mirza Dinnay, who works in Germany to rescue girls and women from the grip of so-called Islamic State. Lamya Taha, an 18-year-old girl who managed to escape from the group in April after being held captive for 20 months also spoke at the conference.
At the end of the meeting with the Portuguese deputy minister Eduardo Cabrita and the secretary of state for citizenship and equality, Catarina Marcelino, Ana Gomes said that “the Portuguese government is completely willing to receive this first group of 470 Yazidis who we found in the Idomeni camp [in Greece] and who have been trying to come to Portugal for the last three months”.
“We understand that the Greeks do not want to be seen to favouring anyone, but this is not about sending anyone to the front of the queue”, the Socialist MEP said, recalling that the resettlement process of the 50,000 refugees currently in Greece has to start somewhere.