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LISBON — Portugal on Wednesday lifted a cordon sanitaire around villages in the southwest of the country imposed after a localized COVID-19 outbreak that drew attention to overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions among immigrant farmhands.
Announcing the decision, Prime Minister António Costa said the government would direct European Union funding to improve housing for migrants working in the area.
“Whether they are temporary or permanent, seasonal or with fixed contracts, resident or just passing, they all need housing that respects human dignity,” Costa said in the southwestern town of Odemira on Tuesday. “This is a fundamental rule and there cannot be any exceptions.”
Authorities set up roadblocks to prevent movement in and out of villages in the remote municipality on April 30 as COVID infection rates reached almost 30 times the national average.
The outbreak was focused among the estimated 13,000 migrant agricultural workers, mainly from south and southeast Asia, working in fruit farms around Odemira.
A government statement issued Tuesday evening said the measures introduced over the past two weeks had led to a “positive evolution of the epidemiological situation” allowing it to end the enforced quarantine.
An intense media focus on the plight of the migrant workers has increased political pressure for the Socialist government to take action.
“We cannot be fighting for more rights for the Portuguese and for Europeans, when we have people working in Europe in unacceptable conditions,” Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said Monday in a pointed reference to the European Social Summit hosted by Costa in the northern city of Porto last weekend.
Costa dropped his agenda suddenly Tuesday and traveled to Odemira, 200 kilometers south of Lisbon, saying the issue could “no longer be handled by mobile phone.”
He announced an agreement with local fruit producers to facilitate the construction of improved accommodation for seasonal workers by early 2022. A second agreement will help Odemira town hall provide permanent housing for longer-term migrants.
Costa said both agreements would be backed by government money, including from EU funds.
Nationwide, Portugal’s coronavirus infection rates are among Europe’s lowest.
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