About a hundred East Timorese, who came to the region enticed with work contracts, without housing and without food.
About a hundred Timorese citizens, men and women, been in the last thirty days, evicted by landlords and others had to abandon the houses where they lived because they were living in undignified housing conditions.
The last case occurred on Wednesday in the parish of Pias, Serpa county, when Social Security (SS) carried out an inspection of the conditions in which they lived 24 Timorese immigrants, 20 men and 4 women, having been accompanied by elements of the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF), National Republican Guard (GNR), CLAIM-Local Support Center for the Integration of Migrants, Parish Council of Pias and Municipal Civil Protection of Serpa.
None of the Timorese immigrants, agricultural workers, had a work contract and were living in a house in inhumane conditions, ending up being temporarily relocated.
In a statement to the Municipality of Serpa, made it known that “it responded to an emergency situation and the request of the SS assumed responsibility for the temporary resettlement of those citizens, ensuring the delivery of food, as long as it takes”, justifies the serpent city council.
The official of the Public Relations Office of the GNR of Beja, confirmed the visit to the site to “confirm the lack of housing conditions. The four women went to the Algarve, for eventually having work, and the men were left to the responsibility of a third entity”, justified Major Rui Fernandes.
Evictions from housing in Cabeça Gorda
Less than a month later, the scenery came back to life in Cabeça Gorda, county Beja. Last Saturday forty Timorese workers, 39 men and 1 woman, were evicted from the house where they lived, for possible non-payment of rent. The property is owned by a Pakistani businessman, which hires and leases houses to immigrants, no Beja district, from 2018.
After knowing the situation, Social Security referred the citizens to the former Student House, managed by Cáritas Diocesana de Beja (CDB). When they were still housed in the village of Cabeça Gorda, the meals, lunch and dinner, were transported by the parish council, but provided by Caritas, now in Beja, the four dozen Timorese will eat at the institution.
On 29 July, 28 Timor-Leste immigrants, who came to Alentejo, with the promise of regulated and properly remunerated work, ended up having to leave the houses where they lived by order of the same Pakistani businessman. They were welcomed by the Parish Council and stayed for some time in the premises of the former Casa do Povo., where they also had their meals.
SEF and Timor Embassy attentive
The Foreigners and Borders Service and the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, are aware of this serious social problem that Timorese citizens are experiencing and awareness-raising actions have already been carried out for those arriving in Portugal. Last day 16, a meeting was held between the Embassy Counselor and the Deputy National Director of the SEF, to address and deepen the ongoing partnership.
Violent aggression between Asian citizens in the municipality of Beja
Last Saturday night a Pakistani citizen from 40 year old, who stabbed a co-worker, on Friday night, on a hill about 10 miles of Beja. The case took place in Monte das Alcaçarias de Cima, in the parish of Our Lady of the Snows, following an argument involving aggressor and victim of 41 year old, who is still hospitalized in the Emergency Department of Hospital José Joaquim Fernandes, in Beja, with reserved prognosis. The assailant was held in pre-trial detention..
On the evening of the last day 18 August, several Indian citizens residing in Baleizão, also in Beja county, engaged in physical assaults, which resulted in four injured people who were transported to the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital, in the city Alentejo.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
Photo: DR
