The director of the PSP’s Central Unit for Foreigners and Migrations said this Wednesday in Luanda that the police are aware of the danger of religious and political radicalization of some immigrant communities in Portugal.
When listing the challenges that immigration poses to national security and police work, at the International Seminar on Public Security, taking place in Luanda, Hugo Palma said that the PSP monitors some immigrant communities “very closely” and recognizes “the danger of radicalization, be it religious radicalization or political radicalization”.
“This is a reality, not only for those who come to Portugal, but it is also a problem for some groups that are already in Portugal”, said the director of that unit, belonging to the PSP’s National Unit for Foreigners and Borders.
Hugo Palma, who spoke on the panel about “the phenomenon of irregular immigration and its implications for the national security of the Member States of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP)”, recognized the PSP’s concern with radicalization, which “obviously puts the cohesion” of the country into serious question.
Superintendent Hugo Palma recalled that in 2017, close to 400,000 foreign citizens were registered in Portugal and in eight years the number rose to 1.5 million.
“There are more than a million people from other countries who chose Portugal to enter, to work, study and live. As you can see, this represents an extraordinary challenge”, said the PSP official.
According to the director, the volume of immigrants in Portugal also poses social challenges, namely the need to ensure that they have access to essential goods, namely health, education and social support.
“This is also a debate and one that concerns us, directly, because it then causes the phenomenon of transfer to what is our reality, the criminal networks that take advantage of migration, human trafficking, also the criminal groups that are already installed in our country and that take advantage of this large flow to entice them and bring them into their criminal activity”, he noted.
The official argued that the large flow of immigrants in Portugal “eventually causes an exhaustion” of Portugal’s capacity “to receive these people”.
“And finally, because we recently experienced the Covid-19 pandemic, I would like to put it here, the issue that poses some health risks to public health”, concluded the person in charge.
The International Seminar on Public Security took place within the scope of the VI Meeting of Ministers of the Interior and Internal Administration of the CPLP, which ends on Friday in Luanda.
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