Portuguese gov’t ready to welcome 2,000 more refugees

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said on Thursday that his government is ready to welcome 2,000 more refugees, to join the previously agreed 1,500 already proposed by the European Commission, or EC.

“Portugal must receive 1,500 refugees. We do not have any obstacles to receiving about 2,000 more refugees,” Passos Coelho said in a radio election debate with the Socialist candidate Antonio Costa, for the legislative elections on Oct. 4.

Passos Coelho, candidate for the centerright Social Democratic Party, or PSD, rejected the “military solution” to the refugee crisis, because “it will eventually aggravate the same problems.”

He found, moreover, that the arrival of immigrants, both war refugees and those looking for a better economy, is necessary to offset the aging population problem in Europe.

The Socialist Costa said that the refugee crisis shows that Europe is “incomplete” and did not rule out the possibility that Portugal will participate in possible military action.