SEF declines asylum to 8 Moroccans who arrived in December and dissuades new illegal route, but assesses new arrivals’ request

The SEF’s Asylum and Refugees Office have declined the admissibility of the request for international protection of the eight Moroccan immigrants who landed on the Algarve’s shores back in December. Despite this, the authority has agreed to consider the asylum application of the 11 who arrived illegally on Tuesday in a nearly identical fashion.

The decision has not yet been publicised by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), but an anonymous source confirmed to national newspaper Diário de Notícias that the Asylum and Refugees Office (GAR), which issues technical and reasoned opinions, has considered it “inadmissible “, given the legal criteria in force, to grant asylum to the eight Moroccan immigrants who landed in Monte Gordo last December.

Despite this, the SEF have announced, in an official statement, that it will appreciate the request for “international protection” made by the 11 migrants who landed in Olhão this Tuesday. “Under the international protection framework applied in other cases of foreign citizens rescued in the Mediterranean, the application for the granting of the status will be registered and documentation will be provided that proves the period of analysis of the same. This documentation allows, during that period, to be able to them be guaranteed medical assistance, education, accommodation and means of subsistence “, claims the SEF, presenting the same arguments for the previous case and which the GAR refuted.

Many hope that GAR’s position in declining the request can serve as a basis to dissuade the consolidation of a new route for illegal immigration in the Mediterranean towards Portugal. The final decision however is in the hands of the Minister of Internal Administration, who can still authorize these immigrants to reside in Portugal “exceptionally” for “humanitarian reasons”.

Speaking on Tuesday, regarding the new landing of illegal immigrants in the Algarve – 11 Moroccans from the same village as the previous ones -, Eduardo Cabrita has already hinted at what the GAR source had revealed to press, although he claimed that the process was not completed. “This assessment is not yet finished, what was requested was an international protection statute, we understand that it does not make any sense, in relation to a friendly country like Morocco, to grant an asylum status for which no adequate basis has been presented. “, said the minister, adding that alternatives will always be evaluated, “namely the granting of a residence permit “.

Back in December the Security Information Service (SIS) warned of the possibility of establishing new routes for illegal immigration that would bring the European border crisis to Portugal, if signs of easy entry were demonstrated. The Minister of Internal Administration has already come to say that “it is premature to speak of such routes”.

Former Secretary of State for Internal Administration Nuno Magalhães, who worked closely alongside the SEF, agrees that it is “premature”, but underlines that “these matters work by signs and it is good that the signal that the government wants to give is firm in the sense of deterring any intention to establish, in fact, this new route “.

The ex-president of the parliamentary bench of the CDS points out that “there is in Portugal a legal precedent for immigration and another for asylum – and both cases are humanitarian, adequate and even avant-garde regimes in the European Union (EU)”. In his opinion, “Portugal must have a strict immigration and humanist policy on asylum – that is the signal to give”.

Without wanting to go into the specific case of the Moroccans, whose details he is unaware of, Nuno Magalhães is confident as to the option he defends: “It is good that Portugal has a Minister of Internal Administration who knows well the differences in legal systems, who acts according to the law and not for the convenience of his political alliances.”

International security and terrorism specialist Filipe Pathé Duarte also believes that it is too early to talk about new routes, but “taking into account that this is the second time this type of landings has taken place within a week weeks, involving immigrants with the same origin, this scenario should not be excluded.” He believes that the government should give “a weighted message and be modest in concluding that Portugal is not open to the route of illegal immigration by sea”. However, he points out, “we must see that, in fact, the routes have changed in recent times”.