São Paulo – The Secretariat for Justice and Citizenship Defence of the State of São Paulo has inaugurated this Monday (15th) the Immigrant Citizenship Integration Centre (Centro de Integração da Cidadania do Imigrante – CIC), located in the Barra Funda district, in Westside São Paulo. The goal is to welcome foreigners arriving in São Paulo, facilitating their access to fundamental civil rights.
The CIC will function as a labour office (Posto de Atendimento ao Trabalhador – PAT), a customer rights agency (Procon) and a document issuing office (Poupatempo). In the first half of 2015, the CIC will also start hosting public defender offices at the state and federal levels, as well as issue of duplicates of migration certificates and regulation.
According to the secretary for Justice and Citizenship Defence, Eloisa de Souza Arruda, there are approximately 1 million illegal aliens in the state of São Paulo. “The arrival and permanence of immigrants is controlled by Federal Police. We are aware that the work done at airports and borders is not always perfect, because country’s western borders are vast, therefore fragile, making it easy for people to get in.”
Arruda explained that the biggest vulnerabilities are slave labour and trafficking for sexual exploitation or drugs. “Illegal immigrants to the country are easy targets for drug trafficking, because they are offered the advantage of becoming ‘mules.’ Just look at the huge population of incarcerated immigrants in São Paulo.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
