The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) acknowledged on Wednesday, 15th April, that the refusal to renew the residence permits of a nine-year-old child and her 20-year-old brother resulted from an assessment error, clarifying that the voluntary departure orders “issued in error” have now been cancelled.
However, Cátia Moreira, a Brazilian national and the children’s mother, told national newspaper Jornal de Notícias (JN) she learned of the decision purely by chance. “They didn’t even send me an email,” she said.
The family, originally from Goiânia, Brazil, has lived in Portugal for around nine years and currently resides in Paderne, in the Algarvian municipality of Albufeira. Days ago, they were taken by surprise when Beatriz, aged nine, and Lucas, 20, were ordered to leave the country voluntarily. “I was truly frightened and distressed, not knowing what might happen. I even imagined the GNR coming to take Beatriz away,” Cátia Moreira told journalists.
The case, first reported by SIC television, became even more puzzling given that the parents had already obtained permanent residence permits, while AIMA granted the girl and her brother just 20 days to leave Portugal.
“We have four children. Bianca, six, was born in Portugal; Beatriz, Lucas and Mateus, who is 24 and still has a valid residence permit. I work in TVDE passenger transport, my husband works in condominium maintenance, and both boys have permanent contracts at Pingo Doce. No one expected such a decision,” she said.
The AIMA email was received on 7th April, informing the family that the child had 20 days to leave the country on the grounds that proof of accommodation had not been submitted. The message also stated that the minor’s name had been entered into the centralised database of the Internal Security System and the Schengen Area.
Cátia Moreira said she only felt reassured at around 4pm on Wednesday, whilst preparing for a television interview. “I went onto the AIMA portal to show the journalist the departure order concerning my children, and what I saw was that it had been cancelled. They could have phoned me or sent an email.”
In a statement, AIMA confirmed that the situation “resulted from an error in the administrative assessment of the residence renewal application, which has since been corrected and the family notified. The voluntary departure notification, issued in error, has therefore been cancelled.”
The agency added that “whenever material errors, formal inconsistencies or insufficient documentation are identified, AIMA remains available to reassess, correct and rectify the processes concerned, maintaining its commitment to ensuring the legality, consistency and quality of administrative decisions”.
“As is publicly known,” the statement continued, “AIMA is currently finalising decisions on hundreds of thousands of pending cases inherited from previous administrations that had not undergone any procedural handling.”
The episode comes on the eve of the official visit to Portugal by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, scheduled for 21st April. According to official sources, immigration, xenophobia, and the aeronautics sector are expected to dominate discussions during meetings with Portugal’s President and Prime Minister, António José Seguro and Luís Montenegro, respectively.
Source: JN
