“We have been waiting for 8 and 6 months. We don’t want to wait any longer”, reads one of the posters displayed by the immigrants who this Monday, March 4th, protested in front of the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) in Portimão.
At issue are the long waiting times to obtain residence cards, without which these immigrants cannot return to their home country.
Also in February there were protests for the same reason with the AIMA of Faro. In statements to SIC News, immigrants revealed that they felt “trapped in the void” and confused by the extinction of the SEF and the creation of this new agency.
Created in October last year, AIMA means the fusion of “what were the administrative powers of the SEF and what are the powers of the High Commission for Migrations with regard to the reception and full integration of those who choose to live, study or who were forced to leave their country", explained Ana Catarina Mendes, Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, on the sidelines of the visit to AIMA Faro, on the 3th of November.
At the time, Luís Goes Pinheiro, president of the board of directors of this Agency, also stressed that the first priority established for the Agency's work was “dealing with documentation”.
After the extinction of the SEF, AIMA inherited more than 300 thousand pending cases.
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