Portugal Responsible For Immigrants Life Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic

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JAKARTA - In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which is starting to globalize, many countries have made extra struggles to defend the economy. Obviously, sooner or later, health problems will have implications for the economy. In the midst of this trend, Portugal appeared with a different face.

Monday, March 30, the Portuguese government declared human safety a priority. In the midst of being busy taking care of the needs of their own nation's children, Portugal has in fact not escaped the foreigners who live there.

According to Reuters, every foreign citizen in Portugal with a pending residence permit application will be treated as a citizen of their own country until July 1. Applicants for a residence permit, including foreign nationals seeking asylum, only need to provide proof of evidence to the government as a condition so that they can gain access to national health services, welfare benefits, bank accounts, employment contracts and leases.

Portuguese Interior Ministry Spokesman Claudia Veloso said, "... they (immigrants) should not be deprived of their rights to health and public services just because their applications have not been processed. Because in these extraordinary times, immigrants' rights must be guaranteed. . "

This policy is not just a matter of fulfilling rights, moreover, it has a main objective, namely to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Way, by minimizing contact between border control service staff and applicants for residence permits.

From existing official data, foreigners are mostly dominated by immigrants from Brazil, followed by Romania, Ukraine, Britain and China. Even so, it is not certain how many people have residence permit applications.

Based on Portuguese government statistics in 2019, a total of 580 thousand immigrants were shown in the country, with 135 thousand people newly granted housing in the same year.

Portugal has now reported 5,170 cases of the virus with one hundred deaths. For this reason, Portugal's efforts to protect foreign citizens are certainly an important option so that their country is not like its neighboring country, Spain, which has a much higher number of infections and deaths.