Tag Archive for: racism

Brazilians

‘We hope a presidential candidate who includes everyone, will win’

The year 2025 was marked by setbacks in immigration issues, says Ana Paula Costa – president of the Casa do Brasil (Brazil’s House) in Lisbon – to newspaper Público. ‘We had a very difficult year in terms of narrative, legislation and integration of immigrants, not just for the Brazilian community.

‘Attacks of xenophobia and racism were unfortunately mainly directed to Asians and Roma but of course, the Brazilian community – being the largest in terms of numbers (nearly half a million Brazilians i.e. circa 5% of the Portuguese population) – was also greatly affected by this rhetoric’, she adds.

‘The impact of the rhetoric – in particular by André Ventura, chairman of the far-right party Chega – is direct on public services, on the way people are treated on a daily basis, on their rights and access. Immigration has been highly politicized in public discourse, and in a very negative way.’

In 2022, the Commission for Equality and against Discrimination (CICDR) reported that cases of xenophobia against Brazilians had increased exponentially, with reports of confrontations such as ‘it’s not my problem if you don’t know how to speak Portuguese’, ‘Brazilian women come here to steal our husbands’ and ‘you don’t understand anything, you’re stupid.’

A study by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, published in 2024, indicated that five out of ten Portuguese citizens want the Brazilian presence in Portugal to decrease.  

With the presidential elections later this month, Costa hopes that the Portuguese will elect someone who ‘values the rule of law, respects people and includes everyone in his mandate, as this is fundamental for democracy.’

In her assessment, the changes to the Foreigners Act (Lei de Estrangeiros) and the proposed amendments to the Nationality Act (Lei da Nacionalidade) have a clear objective of reducing the influx of immigrants. ‘The centre-right government demonstrates this on the argument of immigrant deregulation and lack of administrative capacity.’

‘But immigration was not deregulated,’ she explains! ‘Since the 1980’s we have had immigrant regulations in Portugal. And from an administrative capacity point of view, what happened is poor public administration, as is reflected in other public services, such as social security, health, housing and education, where there has been no investment over the years to enable people to exercise their rights, such as the right to obtain a valid residence permit in time.   

‘In fact, this is a much bigger issue: there has been no investment whatsoever in the immigration service, and last year this has created huge administrative problems, especially in the transition from the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF)to the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).’

So, less bureaucracy in public services, more recognition of the importance of immigrants, better regularization of immigration, less hate speech, and more jobs, political awareness, respect for fellow citizens and protection for women.
That’s the 2026 wish list of Brazilians in Portugal.


Happy New Year          Feliz Ano Novo             (Pic Público/Sapo)



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Detention

21 March – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

‘It’s violence of a racist nature perpetrated into our prison system.’
– José Pureza, MP of the Left Bloc (BE)

‘Accusations of racism, xenophobia, and torture are a shame for our country.’
– Carlos Peixoto, MP of the Social Democrats (PSD)

‘It’s a reality that exists, apartheid in our society.’
– Isabel Moreira, MP of the Socialist Party (PS)

‘Police violence is serious but look, violence against the police also increased.’
– Vânia da Silva, MP of the Christian Democrats (CDS)

Both left and right wing parties in Parliament are concerned about racism in the police force and violation of human rights in prisons. The reason is a recently published report of the European Committee against Torture, stating that police violence in Portugal – in particular against African descendants – is the highest in Western Europe.

The committee – that also visited the country in 2013 – emphasizes that the police violence at police stations has increased and that the situation in the overcrowded prisons of Caxias, Setubal, and Lisbon is ‘inhuman and degrading.’

Julia Kozma, lawyer and chairing the European delegation, points the finger towards the Ministry of Internal Affairs – responsible for the police and the security forces – and regrets its lack of ‘awareness’. The Ministry denies the accusations and declares that ‘all complaints about violent police conduct are investigated by the Internal General Inspectorate (IGAI) and immediately reported to the Public Prosecutor.’

The reality, however, is that only a very small number of the complaints are brought before court. ‘And that’s exactly the problem’, says Kozma. ‘There is a spirit of impunity and bureaucracy, whereby complaining doesn’t help. The inspection body (IGAI) needs more skills to conduct criminal investigations and more resources to act independently.’

Pedro Neto, the director of Amnesty International in Portugal, also believes that the IGAI – “the police of the police” – should become independent of the Ministry. ’One government department cannot control another state entity.’

In recent months the non-governmental organization SOS racism received an increasing number of grievances from inmates in the prison of Lisbon about racist provocations and intimidations. Peculiar was that all complaints came from African immigrants and that any registration on xenophobe or racist behavior from the guards and staff is lacking.

All hope is now pinned on the Minister of Justice, Francisca van Dunem. She announced recently not only to reduce the number of convicts in jail but also to improve the conditions in detention centers. Bias

Bom fim de semana            Have a nice weekend          [photo’s Público/Sapo]

 

 

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Black

‘Portugal is one of the most racist countries in the EU’ – European Social Survey

– ‘No one has ever said to me that I could not rent the house because I’m black’

Mamadou Ba is born in Senegal and has the Portuguese nationality. He is graduated, has a steady job at the Parliament, and speaks with a slight African accent. When he is calling for an apartment in Lisbon’s Parque das Nações neighborhood, he gets an appointment 2 days later. Although the tenant promises him to send an SMS with additional information, he never does. If shortly thereafter a journalist of the newspaper Público– with a Portuguese name and a Lisbon accent – calls the same tenant, he immediately gets the necessary information by phone and an appointment for the next day. In only two out of five phone calls, Mamadou and the journalist were treated the same way.

– ‘It’s hard for blacks to find a job. There’s always a preference for whites.’

Amélia Costa is born in Guinee-Bissau and in possession of a Portuguese passport. When submitting her application for a management position, she doesn’t include a photo in her CV. After a call from the director of Human Resources, she is invited to an interview.
On entry, the director stares at her in amazement. ‘Apparently, he was expecting someone else’, she says.
The interview is going well and Amélia gets the job. When she asks the director at a later stage, why he looked so surprised when they first met, he says ‘the person I called and the person I met, didn’t seem to be the same’. ‘Since you speak without an accent, I didn’t expect you to be a black person. If you had submitted a photo with your CV, I probably would never have called you for an interview’, he confessed.
‘In Portugal, you hardly come across black people in leading positions or in the media. You’ll find them back office, in factories, kitchens, and supermarkets. We are not even given a chance to get to know us’, she explains.

– ‘The presence of black lecturers in the academic community is nil’

‘It isn’t true that social class eliminates racism.
‘If I come somewhere, where I’ am the only black person, I will be discriminated.
It’s no question of social discrimination, it’s the color of the skin’.
‘I’ll give you some examples’, she explains in Público.

‘When I return at the airport from a trip abroad, they often direct me to the line for Non-European passports and my luggage is nearly always checked by customs’. ‘Once I entered a meeting and heard a colleague – a bit too loud – say: ‘I don’t understand what that black one is doing here.’
And something that happened to me recently in the Santa Marta hospital, when I asked for a particular department and someone showed me the way. ‘When you see an indication that says Outpatients, you turn right – can you read?’
Inocência Mata is the only black professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lisbon, where she is teaching since 1990.

BOM  FIM  DE  SEMANA

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Bias

When I was stopped by the police and asked them ‘why’, the officer said ‘a black man is always suspicious’ – José Fernandes, legal advisor.

In Portugal, prisons are painted black! Of every 10 prisoners, 9 (90%) are Africans. If you are from Cape Verde, the situation becomes even worse, as 15 times more Cape Verdeans than Portuguese stay in jail. Compared with these figures Afro-Americans are relatively better off. In the US black people are ‘only’ 5 times more likely to be imprisoned than their fellow Americans.

‘These numbers are shocking’, says Alípio Ribeiro, an attorney from the Criminal Investigation Department and confirm what he already thought: ‘there is a legal system for whites and a legal system for blacks’.
‘You can’t just derive from these data, that black people are more criminal. It is much more likely that black people are locked up easier. Apparently little is needed to put them in prison.’

Approximately 1% of the population – 100.000 people – originates from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, most of them from Cape Verde. The majority lives around the capital, in deprived neighborhoods, like Amadora and Sintra. Their exact number is unknown as collecting ethnic data is prohibited by Portuguese law.

Already in 2014, the Immigration Observatory indicated that sentences are tougher when committed by black Africans. Information from the General Directorate of the Department of Justice (DGPJ) and recently disclosed by the Portuguese newspaper Público, shows that black Africans indeed get the maximum sentence twice as often for offenses like robbery and domestic assault.

Celso Manata, head of DGPJ, however, rejects the idea that the legal system is discriminatory. He admits that there is an over-representation of blacks in Portuguese prisons, but believes that ‘this is caused by the poor socio-economic circumstances of black people, who therefore are more likely to commit a crime’.

‘In a society aimed at keeping an eye on certain communities, it is not surprising that the number of prisoners from these communities will be greater’, declares José Semedo, a lawyer at the National Immigrant Support Centre.
’Both our legal and prison system are much more aggressive to black people’.This is also reflected in the fact, that black people often have to serve their time and hardly get remission. ‘These findings clearly demonstrate that black prisoners are not getting the best defense and therefore stay unnecessary long behind bars.’

BOM FIM DE SEMANA

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Police

‘Als het aan mij lag werden jullie allemaal gesteriliseerd. Het is beter als jullie je bij IS gaan melden en jullie ras van de aardbodem verdwijnt. 
Brr, ik heb bloed van een aap aan mijn handen. Iemand met zo’n kleur kan geen Portugees zijn, dat is een zwartogees.’
( uitspraken van politieagenten in Cova de Moura )

Het Openbaar Ministerie heeft – na 2 jaar onderzoek – 18 politieagenten beschuldigd van raciaal geweld, ernstig letsel, marteling, valsheid in geschrifte en ontvoering van 6 jonge Afro-Portugezen in Cova de Moura, een van de oudste en grootste achterstandswijken van Lissabon, met 7000 inwoners, de meeste afkomstig uit Kaapverdië.

Het begon allemaal op 5 februari 2015 rond het middaguur met de arrestatie van Bruno Lopes, een jonge Portugees van Afrikaanse afkomst, die –volgens de politie – stenen zou hebben gegooid. Op het politiebureau wordt hij mishandeld en uitgescholden. Als vijf van zijn vrienden – en niet 25 zoals de politie beweerde – uit het Cultureel Centrum Moinha da Juventude navraag komen doen, worden ze meteen gearresteerd, omdat ze – volgens de politie – met geweld het bureau wilden binnendringen. Ook zij worden afgetuigd en geïntimideerd – ‘jullie gaan er allemaal aan, vuile zwartjakkers’ – en twee dagen vastgehouden, waarbij het racistisch beledigen, schoppen en slaan onverminderd doorgaat.

Als ze – na voorgeleid te zijn aan de onderzoeksrechter in Sintra – bij gebrek aan bewijs vrij komen, doen ze aangifte van marteling en racistisch geweld. Intern onderzoek bij de politie levert daarvoor onvoldoende aanwijzingen op en twee agenten worden licht gestraft – een wordt overgeplaatst en de ander 6 maanden geschorst. De overige blijven gewoon dienst doen in de wijk.

‘Dit gedetailleerde onderzoek van het OM toont duidelijk aan dat institutioneel racisme bij de politie wel degelijk bestaat en dat de zaak – na vervalsing van de feiten – zowel door de top van de politie als door de onderzoekscommissie twee jaar lang in de doofpot is gestopt’, aldus Lucia Gomes, advocaat van de jongens. ‘Gelukkig hebben ze de kracht en de moed gehad om hun beschuldigingen tot het laatst toe vol te houden.’
De jongens zeggen er deze week in de krant Público over: ‘wij zijn niet tegen de politie, omdat we weten dat we ze nodig hebben, wij zijn ook burgers’. We verzetten ons alleen tegen onderdrukking. We zijn ook niet tegen de Portugese maatschappij maar wel tegen racisme in die maatschappij.’

‘Institutioneel racisme wordt in stand gehouden door een van de grootste leugens die we onszelf voorhouden, namelijk dat Portugal in het – koloniale – verleden amper racistisch geweest is’, zegt Joana Mortágua, parlementslid van het Links Blok. ‘Dat belemmert integratie.’ [ Rassendiscriminatie ]

Over de afloop van het proces zijn de zes slachtoffers allerminst gerust. ‘Zwarten worden hier niet als mensen gezien. Wat er met ons gebeurd is, is niet nieuw. Er zijn de laatste jaren regelmatig van dit soort incidenten geweest, waarmee de politiek helemaal niets gedaan heeft. Zelfs organisaties als de Verenigde Naties en Amnesty hebben zich herhaaldelijk uitgelaten over het racistisch geweld van de Portugese politie. En wat is daarmee gebeurd? Niets. Helemaal niets!’

                                                                                             Bom fim de semana

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Racism

“Ik zat met zwarte kinderen op de lagere school, met een paar op de middelbare school en met geen enkele meer op de universiteit” – Joana Gorjão Henriques.

“Dieper, kun je er nu onder komen?” Het was half vier in de middag en op de hoek van de Avenida Almirante Reis en de Rua Alvaro Coutinho lag de stoep naast het stoplicht open. Er werd blijkbaar aan een kapotte leiding gewerkt. “Nee, niet daar, iets meer naar links.” In de kuil twee Afrikanen in versleten kleding met een schop in de hand. Het zweet stroomde over hun zwarte gezichten. Boven hun hoofd stond een slordig groepje van vijf of zes ongekleurde Portugezen in gele verkeershesjes met een sigaret in de mond aanwijzingen aan de kuil te geven. Op de stoep een oud, wit bestelbusje waarvan het portier openhing. Erin een forse, witte man met een enorme buik en een rode helm op het hoofd, die zat te bellen terwijl hij in de verte staarde.

Hoeveel donker gekleurde Afrikanen er precies in Portugal wonen is niet bekend. De overheid registreert namelijk alleen nationaliteit en geen etniciteit. Hun aantal wordt geschat op bijna 100.000, waarvan verreweg de meeste afkomstig zijn uit de ex-Portugese koloniën Guinee-Bissau, Kaapverdië en Angola.

Afrofobie
Veel zwarte Afrikanen zijn werkeloos of krijgen onderbetaald. Er is ongelijkheid op het gebied van onderwijs, burgerrechten, gezondheidszorg en er is sprake van sociale segregatie, waarbij Portugezen met een Afrikaanse achtergrond in de oudste en slechtste wijken wonen. In de gevangenissen zitten 15 keer zoveel gekleurde Afrikanen dan ongekleurde Portugezen.

Een nationaal platform van 22 actiegroepen, onder leiding van SOS Racisme, wijst de Portugese regering al jaren op het feit dat er veel discriminatie en racistisch geweld tegen zwarte Afrikanen bestaat. Zij willen dat er meer gegevens verzameld worden over etniciteit om de specifieke problemen van minderheden in beeld te brengen. De overheid, die geneigd is de ogen te sluiten, ontkent racisme tegen zwarte burgers en verdedigt het standpunt, dat het verzamelen van etnische gegevens in strijd is met de Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens.

Wel kleur in nieuwe regering.
Maar er zijn ook hoopvolle ontwikkelingen. Zo heeft Portugal sinds verleden jaar voor het eerst een gekleurde premier met voorouders uit Goa – hij wordt mede daarom ook wel de “Gandhi uit Lissabon” genoemd – en is de minister van justitie een zwarte Afrikaanse vrouw, geboren in Luanda, Angola.

Geniet van het weekend    –    Tenha um ótimo fim de semana

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