“Criminal networks may be exploiting a
liberalization of immigration laws in 2017 that made it easier for migrants to
obtain legal residency and eventually Portuguese nationality, enabling them to
move freely within the European Union.
In 2016, the number of foreign residents grew by
2.3 percent, in 2019 the growth rate was 22.9 percent. Immigration from India
and Nepal has surged, making them the second and third non-EU countries of
origin for migrants in Portugal, behind only Brazil.
Portugal has a long history of migration ties
with India, linked to its colonial past. Prime Minister Costa’s father came
from Goa, a Portuguese outpost on India’s west coast for over 450 years up to
1961.
However, over the past decade, the number of
Indians in Portugal has more than quadrupled, according to official figures.
The Nepalese community has grown from 42 in 2005 to almost 17,000 in 2019.
While pledging to crack down on abuses, the
government wants to keep doors open to newcomers.”
Prime Minister Costa blames ‘hyper-overcrowded’
conditions for virus spread among workers.
BY PAUL
AMES
May 10,
2021 1:09 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-hotspot-portugal-migrant-farmhands/
LISBON —
Portugal’s coronavirus numbers have plummeted. Lockdown easing has filled cafés
and restaurants, tourists are starting to return. For one remote corner of the
country, however, spring has intensified the pandemic ordeal.
Authorities
imposed a cordon sanitaire around villages near the southwestern town of
Odemira in a drive to contain infection rates that have reached almost 30 times
the national average.
The
outbreak is concentrated among migrant farmhands, mostly flown in from South
Asia to work in Portugal’s booming fruit farms.
COVID-19
has raced through the migrants’ tightly packed accommodation even as infection
rates in the rest of Portugal have fallen to the lowest levels in Europe.
In
response, police threw up roadblocks around villages. After a week-long total
ban, officers began allowing people to cross barriers for work on Saturday, but
only if they have proof of negative coronavirus tests.
Local
businesses remain shut. A pre-dawn operation Thursday by paramilitary national
guards enforced a government requisition of tourist accommodation to house
migrants at risk of contracting the disease.
The sudden
media focus has highlighted the plight of Portugal’s migrant agricultural
workers, spawning accusations of human trafficking and slavery.
Announcing
the quarantine measures, Prime Minister António Costa denounced migrant living
conditions as “unacceptably insalubrious” and “hyper-overcrowded.”
“We are
going to put a stop to this overcrowding because it’s an enormous risk to
public health as well as a blatant violation of human rights,” Costa told a
news conference.
Rui Rio,
leader of the conservative opposition, went further. “Portugal has every reason
to be ashamed of a situation like this,” he said in a TV interview. “We don’t
have slavery there like 200 years ago, but we almost have slavery.”
The
COVID-19 hotspot hugs a wild stretch of Atlantic coast 200 kilometers south of
Lisbon. Odemira is a pretty, white-washed town at the center of Portugal’s
biggest municipality by area. It’s slightly larger than Greater London, but
with a population of just 26,000.
Officially
that includes 9,615 foreign residents, mostly Nepalese and Indian. But Mayor
José Alberto Guerreiro says those numbers are swelled by at least 3,000 during
peak harvest times.
Migrant
workers are needed to pick berries too delicate for mechanized harvesting.
Improved irrigation combined with a California-style climate has turned Odemira
into a hub for growing vegetables, herbs, flowers and, above all, red fruits.
It’s fed an
export boom that’s seen Portugal’s sales of raspberries, blueberries,
blackberries and redcurrants grew eight-fold over the past 15 years, bringing
in €247 million in 2020 and drawing in investment from global horticultural
giants.
Leading
fruit producers vehemently deny involvement in abuses reported since the
coronavirus outbreak cast a media spotlight on the region.
“The great
majority of companies follow the rules,” Luís Mesquita Dias, president of the
AHSA growers’ association, told the SIC television network last week. “There
are some exceptions, which are serious and should be penalized, but that should
not taint the whole sector.”
Mesquita
Dias said members of his association pay wages in line with collective
agreements struck with Portuguese unions. That means they must respect the
monthly minimum wage of €665.
They are
regularly scrutinized by international clients, including major supermarket
chains, to ensure respect for labor standards, he insisted.
However,
Mesquita Dias acknowledged some 3,000 workers are poorly housed. Mayor
Guerreiro puts the figure at 6,000.
Before the
pandemic, at least, most migrants appeared satisfied with their living and
working conditions, according to a study published last year with support from
Portugal’s High Commission for Migration.
Based on
anonymous interviews with migrant farmhands, it found 85 percent considered
their accommodation reasonable or good. Only around 10 percent categorized
their working conditions as “bad” or “very bad” and around 95 percent said they
were in the country legally.
Portugal’s
Socialist government says intensified oversight since the coronavirus outbreak
has failed to find irregularities with migrants’ status.
“For public
health reasons, we’ve been paying very close attention to the situation in
Odemira,” Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira told foreign correspondents
Friday. “During these weeks of inspections, we haven’t found any immigrants who
aren’t registered with the social security system, nor any who have irregularly
entered the country.”
However,
authorities on the ground say abuses have been increasing in recent years.
Police are investigating suspected cases of human trafficking and exploitation
of illegal labor.
Since 2018,
the immigration service says it has detained 11 suspects and found 134 victims
of trafficking in the Alentejo region, which includes Odemira. Officials
believe trafficking networks are working under the cover of the legal
agricultural labor flows to bring in immigrants illegally.
Guerreiro
says he alerted police two years ago after noticing unusually high numbers of
migrants arriving outside the peak harvest season. “There are mafias operating
here among the workers,” the mayor told reporters.
Supporting
such claims, last year’s study found many Asian migrants were paying
intermediaries over €10,000 to travel to Portugal. Local business leaders
report being offered thousands of euros by intermediaries in exchange for
hiring migrants.
Criminal networks may be exploiting a liberalization
of immigration laws in 2017 that made it easier for migrants to obtain legal
residency and eventually Portuguese nationality, enabling them to move freely
within the European Union.
In 2016, the number of foreign residents grew by 2.3
percent, in 2019 the growth rate was 22.9 percent. Immigration from India and
Nepal has surged, making them the second and third non-EU countries of origin
for migrants in Portugal, behind only Brazil.
Portugal has a long history of migration ties with
India, linked to its colonial past. Prime Minister Costa’s father came from
Goa, a Portuguese outpost on India’s west coast for over 450 years up to 1961.
However, over the past decade, the number of Indians
in Portugal has more than quadrupled, according to official figures. The
Nepalese community has grown from 42 in 2005 to almost 17,000 in 2019.
While pledging to crack down on abuses, the government
wants to keep doors open to newcomers.
“We welcome
immigrants,” Siza Vieira said. “We want to keep welcoming them, because we know
the contribution they make to the country.”
Money for
migrant housing, and for strengthening the consular network to ease bottlenecks
in the issuing of work visas, is included in the country's plan for the EU's
post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Fund, which Portugal submitted to the
European Commission last month.
A reform of
the immigration service launched last year aims to overcome the “old concept of
keeping people out,” the minister explained.
“If there
is one thing Portugal needs, it’s people, young people, people with the will
and the ability to work,” Siza Vieira said. “We view this with great
satisfaction, but we have to respond better, we haven’t responded well.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário