According to the Minister of the Presidency, there are now 39,000 unemployed immigrants in Portugal.
At the presentation of the second Plan of Integration of Immigrants (PII), Pedro Silva Pereira said that serious measures will be taken to help the unemployment situation among foreigners in the country.
The number of unemployed immigrants has doubled in the past two years.
Pedro Silva Pereira added that often “low skills and the sectors in which most immigrants work (construction sector) make foreign residents more vulnerable to a financial crisis”.
Manuel Correia, a spokesman for workers’ union CGTP, said: “Immigrants cannot be the scapegoat for the crisis in the country. Illegal immigrant workers are being used by unscrupulous employers and this must end.”
