Some organizations that have already signed the initiative:
Signed of Immigrants in the Azores (AIPA); Signed Kizomba; Signed Slope Improvements and Recreation; Signed Migrant Woman; Signed Living Eye; Signed of Togolese origins in Portugal; Brazil House; Big House of Brazil; Moldovan Cultural Center; Young Space of Sta Filomena; Khapaz; Immigrant Solidarity; SOS-Racism.
The draft directive on the detention and expulsion of immigrants (which the EU calls the “return directive”) will be voted on in the European Parliament on the 18th of June. In the midst of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, when integration and interculturality should be discussed, this directive means the continuity and strengthening of European immigration policies based on repression, security schizophrenia and the denial of the most elementary rights.
This Directive establishes common rules for the expulsion of immigrants who have not had the opportunity to settle on European soil. With the approval of this directive, Europe proposes:
The detention, for up to 18 months, of immigrants who are not regularized, simply because they seek better living conditions;
The detention of minors, even for a period “as short as possible”, in defiance of all child protection rights;
The ban on expelled immigrants from returning to Europe within a period of five years, which reinforces the growing criminalization that they have been subjected to.
In a country of emigration like Portugal, we cannot condone xenophobic measures. Against the Fortress Europe, for a Europe of rights, we are mobilizing and demanding that MEPs and MEPs assume their responsibilities, rejecting this diploma, which has been criticized throughout Europe, by immigrant associations, rights and other civic actors.
Meeting next Saturday, June 14, 2008, 3 pm, Largo de São Domingos, Rossio, next to the Monument for Tolerance (next to Ginjinha do Rossio).