The director of the Portuguese Catholic Migration Service, Eugénia Quaresma, says she is looking forward to changes in the leadership of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).
Pedro Portugal Gaspar has become the new president of AIMA, according to the Government’s announcement. The former Director General of Consumer Affairs and former Director of ASAE will take the position left vacant by Luís Goes Pinheiro, who is moving from the management of AIMA to the Mission Structure for the Recovery of Pending Immigrant Cases.
In statements to the RenaissanceEugénia Quaresma says she has already worked closely with Luís Goes Pinheiro and says she hopes that the person in charge has all the means at his disposal to achieve the objective.
“I am hopeful. I can’t make predictions, so let’s see. (Luís Goes Pinheiro) was someone I met during our work and who was concerned about computerizing processes and streamlining them. It seems to me that this part is capable of gaining speed. We hope that he has the human resources and also the technical means. Then there is everything else that has to do with welcoming and integration”, he tells Renascença.
In a parliamentary hearing at the end of June, Luís Goes Pinheiro stated that there are currently 410,000 pending immigrant cases in Portugal and promised to end the backlog within a year.
For the director of the Portuguese Catholic Migration Service, there are still “many problems to be resolved” in the reception of immigrants.
“There are situations where people are left on the streets and need an urgent response. There are also other issues related to consulates, visas, and the way the process is carried out from the country of origin. The fight against companies and all the business of profiting from the delay in issuing documents is another aspect that needs to be addressed,” he says.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
