Government will have to open “entry route” for immigrant workers to help rebuild areas affected by Storm Kristin

The President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Wednesday that the plan to rebuild the areas affected by storm Kristin will require more workforce and that the government may have to open “a way in” to respond to this exceptional situation.

“We need manpower”, acknowledged the head of state when questioned by journalists about the problems reported by construction companies. “We probably need to find a solution to open a route, a channel for bringing in manpower, especially suited to this type of challenge”, he argued, admitting that this response will come from “immigrants, of course”.

According to the President of the Republic, this is the way to respond to the situation and ensure that there are people for the necessary works. “It is a problem of necessity, there must be labor”, he assured.

With a large number of companies and homes severely damaged by the storm, the Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion met this week with the construction sector to ensure that there is capacity to move forward with reconstruction in the areas most affected by the Kristin depression.

After the meeting, Manuel Castro Almeida said that construction companies will concentrate workers who were in other parts of the country in the Central region to rebuild the areas affected by the bad weather.

Even acknowledging that “there is already a labour shortage in the construction industry throughout the country”, the minister said that “despite this, the whole country feels solidarity with what is happening”. Therefore, he continued, “the large construction companies that were here today showed their willingness to bring workers who were working in other regions and who will be concentrated here in the Central region”.

According to the minister, “this means that some work will be left behind, will be delayed”, but “this is inevitable”.

With many projects underway, companies in the construction sector are facing problems in terms of hiring, as there is a shortage of workers. To get around this shortage, large groups in the sector have resorted to foreign labour.

Asked whether the package announced at the weekend by the Executive is sufficient to respond to the tragedy caused by the successive storms, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reiterated that everything will depend on the ‘”orm of execution” and “speed”.

For the President, it is necessary to “make a good assessment of the damage; ensure that this assessment is communicated effectively; and not take too long [to implement the plan], so that what was a response to the damage is either no longer timely or leaves out certain situations”.