It’s a normal night in Lisbon. Near Avenida Almirante Reis, couples walk hand in hand, people walk their dogs and tourists pass by with curious glances at dozens – which will exceed a hundred – of people sleeping on the sidewalk. The queue is long, it starts to form during the day and will only end at the end of the next day, when those are served at the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) dos Anjos store, the only one in Lisbon that serves without prior appointment.
All people are there as a last resort: tried to obtain information by phone, email and registered letter. Some have already spent the night in line and haven’t been able to get one of the passwords that are distributed daily. They come from far away, by bus, by hitchhiking, as best they can. They just want information about their regularization processes, since communication with AIMA, two years since its creation, is practically impossible.
During the night, with the number of people increasing, names are placed on a sheet of paper, where there are the most diverse surnames, just like the accents we hear. Some can sleep on the floor, others just lie on cardboard. There is who knows he won’t sleep and takes a bench to sit onr. While the immigrants are talking, united by common problems, the night progresses and the service begins at 8:00 am with confusion about the order of arrival and the frustration of some: despite being attended to, AIMA had no information to give them.
The images by DN photojournalist Leonardo Negrão.