Salil Shetty, the Secretary General of Amnesty International believes that human rights are in decline in Europe and regrets that even European leaders "with progressive views" stays "in silence for fear of losing votes."
"Governments must have maximum transparency and not maximum secrecy."
It is for "economic reasons" that Portugal says nothing about human rights violations in African countries to which it is connected, according to Shetty referring to Portugal’s disgraceful relationship with former colony Angola whose President for life and his daughter are running an international money laundering operation with Portugal’s cheery connivance - allegedly.
Shetty’s met with Portugal’s Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho. Hours before, a speech included issues such as discrimination in Europe and said that current migration policies are to "push people out,"which is a mistake because "more immigration would represent economic success."
Shetty recalled that Amnesty was created in 1961 after the founder, Peter Benenson, read a news story about the arrest of Portuguese students. "Amnesty would not exist without Portugal"
"We are very concerned with human rights setbacks over the past few years. We have focused on the treatment of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers; and the discrimination against Gypsies. In both cases the economic crisis has aggravated the situation."
Existing policies were defined before the crisis and the economic argument against immigration is very weak. In most countries, more immigration would represent economic success. When there is a crisis there is always the argument that immigrants should leave, but the truth is that immigrants often do jobs that nobody else wants to do.”
