Leitão Amarão’s reaction came, at the end of the Council of Ministers, after the Patriarch of Lisbon, Rui Valério, criticised the possibility of the Government imposing quotas on immigration in an interview with Rádio Renascença.

“The Government has a realistic, humanist vision on migration, both Portuguese emigration abroad and immigration to Portugal”, stressed the minister.

Leitão Amaro stated that the Government found “migration policy in a state of total disarray, with total operational chaos without the capacity to respond in the public sector, with incorrect rules regarding entry”.

According to the Minister of the Presidency, responsible for overseeing migration, the Government, in light of what it found, had to “review the rules, change the organisation, adjust procedures and create new solutions”.

“We have several rules that contribute to what we call regulated migration, but it is a humanistic approach, as we know that there are economic migrants and there are people in need, the asylum seekers, people in profound vulnerability that we have a humanitarian duty to welcome”, he stressed.

“Languages ​​of completely closed doors, of inhumane exclusion of people in total need, have no place in our lexicon”, he maintained.

With a political vision of regulated, humanistic and realistic migration, Leitão Amaro reinforced that the doors are neither “wide open nor completely closed”.

“This is a government that believes, on the one hand, in regulated immigration with orderly supervision and, on the other hand, in humane immigration, and this means not only in terms of entry, but also the integration of those who arrive, which was obviously another area in which the State apparatus was deeply failing in relation to human beings to whom we opened our doors and then forgot, ignored and did not treat well,” he added.

Rui Valério told Rádio Renascença that imposing quotas on immigration could “condemn someone to conditions of survival, if not death.”