a The lunch was served to celebrate World Refugee Day, which is celebrated on June 20 every year to draw attention to the situation of refugees around the world, and the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs accompanied some of the success cases to hear their stories and find out what the integration process was like for each one.
Lunch was taken at Restaurant Mezze, in Lisbon, a project to integrate refugees from the Middle East, through training and employment in the field of catering, where stories of struggle, overcoming and conquest were shared, around the table, as well as many difficulties.
Tajala Abedi is an Afghan woman who arrived in Portugal with a work contract. He says he is happy and takes the opportunity to reveal that he has set up an association and is currently working on a project to bring 11 Afghan girls to the country to continue their studies.
“Our goal is to be here by September and that’s why we are currently working with different institutions in Portugal, to get everything ready so that when they get here they have a personal and professional life and can start their studies at a university,” he advances.
Norina Suhid, also Afghani, came to Portugal in March 2022 under a project called Terra de Abrigo – Farming for Refugees, thanks to which she was able to avoid the refugee camp. He wants to study and took the opportunity to propose to Ana Catarina Mendez, but also to the Secretary of State for Equality and Migration, who was present, that projects like the one he was part of could be replicated throughout the country.
“I’ve noticed that in most of the interior of Portugal there are universities that need students and the locals need people to stay there. Why don’t you take advantage of that by bringing more refugees here, especially young people, who want to study?” he wondered.
“Don’t keep them in refugee camps, bring them to universities,” he asked, suggesting that this experienced and educated generation could later help boost the local economy.
The story of Ghalia Taqi, a Syrian woman, is somewhat different. She and her family ended up detained in Portugal when they traveled on fake passports in 2014 to try to get to Switzerland. Today she works for the Jesuit Refugee Service as a translator and social and cultural mediator, but she admits that her integration process has been difficult and has seized the opportunity to bring attention to several issues that she considered were not going well.
From the outset, he advocated the need for a compulsory national plan for Portuguese language learning by refugees, but also warned of delays in health services in responding to people in a given context who would need more serious responses.
Among the other refugees present at the lunch there were also those who drew attention to the difficulty in finding a public school for their children or in the relationship with the public services. Many highlighted the security of the country and thanked everyone for the way they were received and treated.
The Minister listened to all the stories and highlighted the fact that the most heard word was “obrigado” and also took the opportunity to thank the fact that all these people have chosen Portugal as their second home.
He highlighted the successes, but acknowledged that there were difficulties, particularly in teaching Portuguese, took the opportunity to point out that funds in the current state budget had been increased, and stressed that teaching the language was key to better integration.
Ana Catarina Mendez praised the “valuable contribution” refugees have made to Portugal, in particular to social security and the economy, ensuring the building of an “inclusive, pluralistic, humane, tolerant and supportive society” with them.
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