Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, IOM Portugal reported that no moratorium on new immigration detention orders has been established and that there has been no indication in the legislation that detention is to be halted. However, since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, the number of detention orders issued by judges has decreased significantly.
As previously reported by the Portuguese Ombudsman’s office, responding to the GDP’s Covid-19 survey (see 14 May update), IOM Portugal said that the temporary detention facilities at the Lisbon airport were closed following the declaration of the state of emergency and that people detained in those facilities were released. Nonetheless, it is unclear whether the decision was due to the pandemic or due to the death of a migrant in the facilities in March.
IOM Portugal also also stated that, to their knowledge, immigration detainees are tested for Covid-19. But the source was unable to provide details regarding what measures may have been taken as regards migrants or asylum seekers released from detention to prevent spreading Covid-19 and to ensure the care of this vulnerable population.
Some removals have taken place during the pandemic. According to IOM Portugal, these were forced removals issued as a penalty for the commission of a crime, which entailed expulsion following the completion of a prison sentence. The country has also adopted rules to temporarily regularise migrants who had submitted their applications prior to 18 March 2020.
- IOM Portugal (Sofia Cruz), Global Detention Project Covid-19 Survey, 1 June 2020.
- F. Chacon, “Detienen a Tres Funcionarios Portugueses por la Asestar Golpes Hasta la Muerte a un Inmigrante Ucraniano,” ABC Internacional, 30 March 2020, https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-detienen-tres-funcionarios-portugueses-asestar-golpes-hasta-muerte-inmigrante-ucraniano-202003301759_noticia.html
- Provedor de Justiçia, (Joao Antonio Portugal, Coordinator), Email Correspondence with Michael Flynn (Global Detention Project), May 2020, https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/
- Medical Staff Stand Next to Asylum Seekers Evacuated from a Hostel as they Arrive at the Central Mosque to be Tested for Covid-19, (Rafael Marchante, Reuters, “Coronavirus sweeps through Portuguese hostel housing asylum seekers,” SwissInfo, 20 April 2020, https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/coronavirus-sweeps-through-portuguese-hostel-housing-asylum-seekers/45703058)
