"The Immigrant Associations are in total disagreement with the end of the Expression of Interest; its end means a setback of at least 17 years in immigration policies and furthermore, it represents us going back to before 2007 or even to last century, during the construction of Expo 98, the Vasco da Gama bridge and other major works, in which tens of thousands of immigrant people remained in an irregular situation subject to the arbitrariness of unscrupulous employers and mafias", write the 47 organisations.

In a text with the title 'Protest Demonstration of the Associative Movement', these associations say that the measure "not only leaves out tens of thousands of immigrant people who are working and paying for Social Security, hoping to hold a Demonstration of Interest and thus obtain a Residence Title, as well as closing the doors to those the country needs".

Arguing that Portuguese companies "will not hire workers they don't know and who are thousands of kilometres away", the associations say that the government's initiative changes the queues outside the Agency for the Inclusion of Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) to the doors of consulates, which do not have the means either to process applications or to control the mafias that are said to exist in the process of granting work visas.

The end of the presentation of expressions of interest - a legal solution that allowed a foreigner in Portugal to communicate to the authorities that he had job prospects and wanted to regularise himself as an immigrant - was announced on the 3rd and came into force the following day.

Since then, any new request for expression of interest has been refused, even if the applicant is already in Portugal.

The Government wants immigrants to begin the process at Portuguese consulates and embassies before arriving in Portugal, a measure that particularly concerns those whose countries do not have any Portuguese diplomatic representation.

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