Portugal gave expulsion orders to 230 immigrants in the second half of 2024

Between the months of April and June, more than 15 removal orders from Portuguese territory were applied, out of a total of 230 issued. In the previous quarter there were 345 expulsion orders.

Foto: jpn.up.pt/

In the second quarter of this year, Portugal issued fewer deportation orders to foreign nationals found in an irregular situation in the country, totaling 230 orders, compared to the 345 issued in the first quarter. However, the number of effectively executed deportations remained unchanged, with only 15 deportations carried out in both periods.

These figures were released by the European Union’s Statistical Office (Eurostat) this Monday. Regarding the issuance of deportation orders, Portugal is among the countries with the fewest orders issued in the European Union (EU), surpassing only Estonia (160), Malta (160), Slovenia (125), and Slovakia (115).

Overall, EU countries issued 9,615 deportation orders during the second quarter of 2024. Among the highlights are France, with 31,195 orders, Germany, with 12,885, and Greece, with 6,555. Together, these three countries accounted for more than half of all deportation orders issued in the EU, about 52.7%.

According to Eurostat data, most of the third-country nationals who received deportation orders during the second quarter of 2024 were from Algeria (6,715), Morocco (6,475), Turkey (5,910), Syria (5,525), and Afghanistan (5,110).

During the same period, a total of 25,285 third-country nationals who received deportation orders actually left one of the EU Member States. France (3,555), Germany (2,830), and Sweden (2,360) reported the highest numbers of departures, accounting for over a third of the total returns, with 34.5% of the total.

Regarding the enforcement of deportation orders, Portugal is the least efficient country among the EU Member States. From January to March 2024, only 15 people were deported, out of 345 orders issued, representing a compliance rate of just 4%. In the second quarter, 15 people were also deported, but out of 230 orders, slightly raising the compliance rate to 6%.

This inefficiency in carrying out deportation orders in Portugal was not always so pronounced. In 2022, the country managed to execute 27% of the deportation orders issued, and in 2023, the rate was 24%.

Part of this inefficiency cannot be attributed solely to the extinction of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and the subsequent creation of the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA), which began operating on October 29, 2023. Ana Rita Gil, a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and researcher at Lisbon Public Law, explained that the inefficiency is related to a regulation in place since 2017, the "expression of interest," which has overwhelmed the system with immigrant regularization processes. With a backlog of around 400,000 pending cases, the availability of human resources to carry out deportations has been affected.

In response to this situation, the Portuguese government, in its last Council of Ministers, approved the creation of a national foreign and border unit within the Public Security Police (PSP). This new unit will be responsible for controlling air borders, overseeing national territory, in collaboration with the National Republican Guard (GNR), and enforcing deportation and return orders for individuals in irregular situations, as clarified by the Minister of the Presidency, Leitão Amaro.

On the same occasion, the minister stated that "one of the burdens inherited from the extinction of SEF was the dismantling of the deportation and return process for illegal migrants." According to him, the first step to addressing this issue will be to transfer this responsibility to the PSP, which, according to the minister, will make the deportation process faster and more efficient.

Fonte: www.publico.pt