Last week, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) requested advance payment of costs to immigrants with expressions of interest waiting to schedule a meeting to complete their processes or within the scope of family reunification.

This change in procedures had already been discussed in the Migration Council, which includes associations.

"We have been talking and AIMA has been looking for support", Timóteo Macedo, from the Immigrant Solidarity association, told Lusa, who regretted the panic among immigrants and downplayed the amount to be paid.

"The amounts have been higher", he explained.

For cases of spouses of immigrants in a regular situation, the cost is 33 euros, for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) the amount is 56.88 euros and for the rest the total is 397.90 euros, to be paid in a few days.

"AIMA is taking the first steps in contacting the associations" and "learning to involve those who work" on the ground with immigrants, stressed Timóteo Macedo who, however, criticizes the way in which the request was made.

"These messages should not have been sent at the same time, but by seniority", because, "all at once creates a situation of panic", he said.

Since Thursday, AIMA delegations and associations have gathered many immigrants at the door with doubts about their future.

"There is enormous pressure, even here, at the door of our association", because "some of the people panicked because of the alarmist information on social networks, some 'fake news' and some sensationalist news", explained Timóteo Macedo.

The leader of Immigrant Solidarity downplays the amount requested, because "people were prepared to pay" for the scheduling, but warns that the text of the 'email' frightened the immigrants, who feared losing all their waiting time for regularization.

Now, with the criticisms made by immigrants and by various sectors, Timóteo Macedo fears that the Government will use this controversy as an excuse to increase the constraints on the entry of people.

"We want the doors not to be closed and the windows of the mafias to be opened", he warned, stressing that more restrictive policies allow for more cases of precariousness and greater exploitation of immigrants.

"Do not be fooled, the flows will continue to happen", he warned, adding that the mafias "are also white-collar and those who earn the most from this".

The Portuguese authorities have spoken of 350 thousand pending processes, most of them associated with expressions of interest (a foreign citizen presents an Expression of Interest in seeking work in Portugal upon arrival in the country), but Timóteo Macedo doubts this number.

"There are not so many. Many of those who made requests ended up leaving the country, others regularized themselves through CPLP visas, other processes or cases of family reunification", he explained.

On Monday, AIMA announced that it would ask for help from the leaders of immigrant communities to clarify the new procedures, which imply a prior payment of the schedules to which 50 thousand users have already joined.

In a response sent to Lusa, AIMA acknowledged that the decision to request advance payment of the scheduling costs to complete regularization processes generated doubts on the part of immigrants, who have flocked to its facilities.

"There was a significant increase in the number of migrant citizens in the AIMA Stores seeking clarification", because "many of these citizens do not master the Portuguese language, which makes effective communication difficult", said AIMA.

If immigrants do not pay within ten working days, AIMA states that "it will make other attempts to contact users who maintain their interest in the procedure and have not made the payment" of the amount in question.

The previous procedure for expressions of interest "involved sending an 'email' to users, requesting that they contact the Call Center to schedule a vacancy", recalls AIMA, followed by the need to choose "a place to appear on the day and time scheduled and make full payment of the fees at the time of service".

Read Also: PSP called to AIMA in Lisbon and Porto "in a preventive perspective" (Portuguese version)