The President of the Lisbon City Council, Carlos Moedas, met this Tuesday with the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, to discuss the increase in the number of homeless people in Portugal, particularly in the capital.

At the end of the meeting, in statements to journalists made from the Palácio de São Bento, the mayor reiterated his opinion that "the AIMA has not worked for a long time" and that "the Mayor cannot help people without documents".

"Of the 10,000 homeless people [in Portugal], half are in the Lisbon region, but two thirds are in the city of Lisbon. Therefore, Lisbon cannot be alone in solving this problem. We have to coordinate what is the articulation with Social Security, with the Minister of the Presidency and with the people who are in Portugal and are not documented", he began by emphasizing, adding that "more than half of the people who are homeless in Lisbon are foreigners and the vast majority are not documented".

"We are going to have to have more shelters in Lisbon - it cannot be just in the city - and we have to have a faster and functioning AIMA", something that Carlos Moedas guaranteed to be "essential" and that, "for a long time, it did not work. "It didn't work and it has to start working," he said.

Carlos Moedas thus defended that a "reception centre for people without documents, without papers and that the Mayor cannot help" must be created and that "they have been accumulating due to the non-functioning of the AIMA for so long".

"These people end up being on the streets, without being treated and accompanied [...]. We want the country to have a dignified and humane immigration policy and we want people who suffer today - and many of them suffer because they do not have this help - to be able to have a solution here", he stressed.

For this, it is necessary that "everyone is aligned". "We in Lisbon have solutions, we are investing heavily in this ambitious plan of 70 million in seven years", said the mayor, announcing that, next Friday, he will meet with the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, to discuss the next steps to be taken in response to this problem, since "these people cannot be in tents in the middle of the city".

The mayor will meet on Friday with the Ministers of the Presidency and Social Security to find a joint solution to the problem of homelessness, the mayor announced today.

"I would like to thank the Prime Minister for his promptness. I will be this Friday with Mr. Minister Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency, and also with the Minister [of Labour, Solidarity and] Social Security [Maria do Rosário Ramalho]", said Moedas.

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