The Beringel Parish Council, in Beja county, detected 150 false residence certificates requested by immigrants, having reported the case to the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and temporarily suspended the issuance of these documents.
In a statement, the parish council indicated that the false residence certificates were detected during an inspection carried out, Saturday, by the municipality together with the GNR.
The action came after being requested by the board, since the beginning of this month, “next to 170 residence certificates for only six homes, the two witnesses to the application are always the same, which raised suspicions of fraud”, justified.
The president of the Beringel Parish Council, Victor Besugo (PS), reported that, upon realizing the situation, requested GNR monitoring and carried out an inspection of the six homes to confirm the suspicions.
“And we came to realize that, actually, they didn't live there and we met other immigrants who assured us that they were the only ones who lived in those houses”.
In other words, according to the mayor, “they took advantage of the houses where immigrants were already located and gave that address to the junta”.
“We have already reported it to the MP so that entities can act and punish those who provide these false testimonies and, until the situation is resolved, the issuance of residence certificates is suspended”, he stressed.
VÃtor Besugo said he hoped that an investigation into the case would begin and expressed the municipality's availability to collaborate, highlighting that the data of witnesses and applicants “They are all in the parish council”.
According to the mayor of Beringel, before the boom’ of immigration, this parish council spent on average around 60 residence certificates per year.
“But it has been gradually increasing. Last year, we spent about 500 and, this year, we have 600 orders now, in a parish that has 1200 population”, he added.
Strangers fire seven shots at store window
Early Sunday morning, unknown people fired seven pistol shots, against the window of a commercial establishment, property of a citizen of Hindu origin.
There were no injuries, no arrests were made, and everything pointed to an act of revenge between elements of the community.
The incident happened at around 1:50 am, when starting from a dark-colored Audi vehicle, Shots were fired at the window of the old “Cantinho do Rossio†cafe, which for some months now has been a grocery store operated by citizens outside the community, which operates every day from 09:00 to 22:00.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
