The Portuguese government has announced that immigrants whose residence permit applications were previously rejected will have another opportunity to apply. This decision affects approximately 108,000 immigrants whose applications were denied by the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA) due to unpaid fees.
Rui Armindo Freitas, Deputy Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and Pedro Portugal Gaspar, president of AIMA, emphasized that a new call will be made for these individuals to resolve any outstanding issues, including fee payments. The authorities clarified that this initiative aims to give applicants a second chance to submit the necessary documents, not to facilitate their repatriation.
Freitas assured that rejected applications will not automatically result in deportation. Instead, immigrants will be given a chance to present any missing documentation. However, some migrants may have already left the country, and those who remain undocumented will need to leave Portugal, as stated by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
The new measure has been welcomed by legal professionals. Lawyer Fabio Pimentel noted that this decision could prevent potential legal complications for both immigrants and authorities. However, a recent survey from the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation revealed that 63% of Portuguese respondents favor reducing the number of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent.
Despite this, Gaspar pointed out that Portugal’s immigration reception rate is lower than the European Union average, at around 10-11%, compared to the 15% EU average. As of the end of summer, approximately 440,000 legalization applications were in progress, with 150,000 still awaiting review.
