Parliament approves foreigners' law, criticizing the government's haste

The changes to the foreigners' law were approved in parliament today, with votes from the PSD, Chega and CDS, and with much criticism of the lack of mandatory opinions and the government's haste, which led to IL's abstention.

The changes to the legal regime governing the entry, stay, departure and removal of foreigners from national territory had already been approved by the Constitutional Affairs Committee on the 11th, with votes against from the left, which alleged violations of the law due to the lack of mandatory opinions.

This time, in plenary, the IL chose to abstain, with deputy Rui Rocha justifying the change in position because the legislative process was “absolutely unacceptable on the part of the Social Democratic Party”, with “legislative proposals at the 25th hour”.

This is “sensitive legislation that did not have all the guarantees in its legislative process,” said Rui Rocha.

The issue at hand is the lack of mandatory opinions and the hearing of immigrant and constitutionalist associations, requested by opposition parties.