Portugal: Debate over migration continues in the courts

Lisbon: Portugal’s top court has blocked an immigration bill that set out to restrict the number of migrants arriving in the country. Meanwhile, the arrival of 38 migrants on Portugal’s southern coast prompted another judge to rule that the migrants had 20 days to leave the country or be expelled.

Portugal’s Constitutional Court has rejected a bill that had already been approved by the right-wing parliamentary majority in the country. The court made the decision late on Friday, August 8, citing the obstacles the proposals could create for family members hoping to join migrants legally resident in the country

After the court’s decision, the country’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a conservative politician and also an expert in constitutional and administrative law, sent the bill back to parliament, although politicians are on their summer recess until September.

In July, the president had asked the court to check the bill for “potential infringements of the principles of equality, proportionality and legal security,” media reported.

One of the main proposals of the bill is to ensure that hundreds of thousands of migrants already legally resident in Portugal wait two years before they have the right to request family reunification permissions. The only exemptions under the new bill are highly-skilled workers and investors with special residence permits.

According to the constitutional court’s ruling, the bill was “likely to lead to the separation of family members … which would be a violation of the rights enshrined in the constitution.”

Compared to its European neighbors, Portugal receives relatively few migrants arriving by sea routes and entering the country without documents; however, due to its former colonies and linguistic links to countries like Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique, it is no stranger to migration.

In recent years, more migrants have also arrived from South Asian countries, like India and Bangladesh, often to work in the fields as seasonal workers.

According to the fourth barometer on migration from Portugal’s Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos), published in December 2024, migration to Portugal has been increasing since 2015.

However, migrants in Portugal account for around 9.8 percent of the population, which is less than the proportion of migrants in 17 other countries in the European Union, stated the EU’s Home Affairs department at the European Commission, analyzing the statistics contained within.

Despite the relatively low percentage, around 68 percent of Portuguese people consider immigration policy to be too permissive — 67.4 percent of them feel that migrants commit more crime than the rest of the public, and 68.9 percent believe that the presence of migrants affects wage levels, keeping them low.

Conversely, 68 percent of Portuguese respondents also told the barometer’s authors that they thought migrants contribute much to the national economy and acknowledged their positive impact in terms of strengthening the social security system and filling gaps in the labor market.

Sectors like construction, agriculture and services, all essential to Portugal’s economic growth, depend heavily on migrant labor, noted the study’s authors.

But just over half of respondents (51 percent) believe that migrants could threaten Portuguese culture and public security. These kinds of attitudes may have been partly behind the swing to the right in the Portuguese elections that were held in May this year, the third in less than four years.

During that election, the center-right to right-wing alliance won the largest overall number of seats and received 32 percent of the vote. The far-right populist Chega party increased its vote share too, to nearly 23 percent, and the Socialist party suffered one of its worst defeats, falling to third place, with almost 23 percent, but two seats fewer than the Chega party.

Chega party voters were mostly concentrated in the southern half of the country, and were strongest on the southern Algarve coast, with the right-wing Democratic Alliance winning more support in the northern half of the country.

On Saturday (August 9), 38 migrants including 25 men, six women and seven children, all Moroccan nationals arrived on Portugal’s southern Algarve coast in a small wooden boat. The youngest child is reportedly 12 months old, and the oldest person on the boat is reported to be 44.

The GNR police told the agency in a statement that when the group of 38 migrants arrived they were in a “debilitated state and in need of medical care, showing signs of dehydration and hypothermia.”

A local judge in a court in Silves in the region ruled that all of the group would have 20 days to leave the country voluntarily. Failing that, they would be forcibly expelled. Until they leave the country, the European news portal Euronews reported they would be held in a pavilion in Sagres, which has been adapted to accommodate migrants.

Portugal’s national police force, GNR, will be on site to guard the migrants, along with members of the Civil Protection organization and the fire brigade.

After the Silves judge’s decision became known, a spokesperson for the Minister for the Presidency reportedly congratulated the speed of his decision, adding that the Portuguese authorities “deserve a big congratulations” and underlining that Portugal is determined to maintain its “secure maritime borders.”

Minister Leitão Amaro, the Minister for the Presidency, and part of the Social Democratic Party, explained to Euronews that although some of the adults had been hospitalized, they would be brought before the court within 48 hours of the judge’s decision. He added that the expulsion order was issued to the adults because children, as minors, have special protection.

When asked what might happen if any of the group decided to file an asylum request, Minister Amaro told journalists not to “speculate” on that matter, or ask what their final destination would be.

One businessman who was on the beach when the migrants landed told the Portuguese online newspaper Observador that he had heard the migrants’ journey had taken five days from Morocco and four people died on route.

“I spoke to a family with a one-year-old child. They said they came from Morocco. They asked me for water and tobacco. And also food. There was a couple on the beach who gave them food,” the witness told Observador. According to the businessman, as soon as they disembarked, the migrants sat down near a car park and “waited for help”, reported Euronews.

On Saturday, the Portuguese navy confirmed that it was increasing its patrols along the country’s southern coast. The Portuguese Navy urged residents to report any suspicious vessels to it.