Immigrants disillusioned with Portugal demand rights and immediate extinction of the SEF
“The idea that Portugal is very open to immigrants and that it helps immigrants to grow is, in fact, a fantasy,” Aisha Noir, one of the participants in the demonstration, told Lusa agency “Enough of SEF/Regularização Já violence! “, which today brought together, in Lisbon, representatives of around 20 organizations supporting immigrants and defending human rights.
Aisha Noir, a transgender Brazilian woman living in Portugal, says she feels the racist, transphobic stare every day.
Brazilian, who lived in the Netherlands before arriving in Portugal, said that when she arrived in Portugal and felt the look of hatred for being a trans woman, this was something that shocked her a lot.
In this demonstration, which began in Praça Luís de Camões, where several immigrants shared their experiences of identifying themselves as immigrants in Portugal, the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) was the main target of the revolt of these citizens.
“We came to scream enough violence at the SEF, because the situation has lately been unsustainable. from the LX Mutual Support Network, one of the promoters of the event.
This Brazilian points out two situations that, in his opinion, justify today’s protest, namely the waiting time [nos serviços do SEF] and the most treated in services, such as health.
Protesters defend the immediate extinction of the SEF, but also that it be replaced by “a quality public service, of a civil order, that treats immigrants in an equal situation, that is guided not by the issue of security, seeing immigrants, not as a threat to public security, but as a matter of access to basic and fundamental human rights,” he said.
Present at the demonstration, and even before it went to the Assembly of the Republic, the Portuguese Rita Osório, from the Plataforma Antifascista de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, recalled that “the largest workforce in Portugal are immigrants”.
“I feel and have heard testimonies that human rights themselves are being attacked by the SEF”, he said.
Protesters then proceeded to the Assembly of the Republic, chanting several of the slogans of the protest, namely: “I exist, with or without a visa”.