Global Detention Project Survey completed by Portugal’s Provedor de Justiça (Ombudsman).
IS THERE A MORATORIUM ON NEW IMMIGRATION DETENTION ORDERS?
Yes. Migrants who have not legalized their presence in the country and had pending cases before the authorities, as well as asylum seekers, were granted a special temporary authorization of residence, with their cases being suspended until further notice. Asylum seekers who request international protection at the border do not remain detained at the temporary detention centers of the airports, being also granted a special visa that allows them to enter the country.
At the moment, there are no cases of migrants arriving via air and being refused entry at the border, since most flights to/from Portugal have been halted and entry to those is reserved to Portuguese citizens or foreigners with residence permit (family reunion being one exception).
HAVE IMMIGRATION DETAINEES BEEN RELEASED?
Yes. Asylum seekers have been granted temporary entry visas. The same solution was given to 3 non admissible persons who it was impossible to send back.
According to the latest information received, the detained population is comprised of:
UHSA (the sole immigration detention centre in Portugal): seven migrants detained, pending the execution of their forced returns.
EECIT Porto (temporary detention centre at the Porto airport): empty since the 15th of April, when two asylum seekers were granted temporary visas and allowed to enter the country.
EECIT Lisboa: the temporary detention centre of the Lisbon airport was closed by decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs on the 8th of April, following the investigation of the alleged murder of an Ukrainian citizen by border police officers. It will remain closed until the 1st of June, according to the latest information received. When it closed, on April 8th, there was no citizen detained therein.
EECIT Faro: it is open but without detainees in the last month.
EECIT Ponta Delgada and EECIT Funchal: due to lack of international or even internal flights, these centres are not being currently used.
FOR PEOPLE RELEASED FROM DETENTION, WHAT MEASURES ARE BEING TAKEN TO PREVENT SPREADING OF THE INFECTION AND TO ENSURE APPROPRIATE CARE?
ARE ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION BEING USED? IF SO, WHICH?
Although not previously detained, some migrants and refugees have been placed in hostels and at two military bases (Tavira and Ota) which were converted into temporary shelters, testing them for COVID-19 and providing them with basic goods.
The Government has not yet clarified which measures are being used for third-country nationals who benefited from temporary solutions.
ARE IMMIGRATION DETAINEES TESTED FOR COVID? PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY MEASURES THAT ARE BEING TAKEN TO TEST AND PROTECT DETAINEES.
Yes, at UHSA. Further, the authorities put in place a contingency plan in line based on recommendations from the Directorate-General for Health, which include special areas of confinement for suspicious cases and the strengthening of communication with local health centres, should there be a case for concern.
No, at EECIT Porto. According to the authorities, tests would only be conducted when citizens show symptoms of COVID-19.
HAVE DEPORTATIONS / REMOVALS BEEN HALTED BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC? TO WHICH COUNTRIES ARE REMOVALS TAKING PLACE?
Yes. Portugal has suspended on March 13th the transfers pursuant to the Dublin Regulation. Because of the suspension of most flights in/out of the country, deportations/removals might be delayed. Repatriation flights organised by the respective country have occurred.
BROADLY, HAS THE COUNTRY ADOPTED NEW IMMIGRATION AND/OR ASYLUM POLICIES AS WELL AS BORDER CONTROLS IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS?
PLEASE BRIEFLY DESCRIBE ANY CHANGES.
Yes. Besides what was already mentioned, according to the State of Emergency declaration (the first one was issued on the 18th March), the right to international movement was suspended, thus allowing for reintroducing border checks on persons and goods, including health checks at ports and airports, in liaison with the European authorities and in strict compliance with the Treaties on European Union, in order to prevent entry into national territory or to make such entry subject to compliance with the conditions necessary to prevent the risk of the spread of the epidemic or the overburdening of resources allocated to combating it, in particular by imposing compulsory confinement of persons in a place defined by the competent authorities. This suspension was maintained in the following two renewals of the State of Emergency and in the current situation (State of Calamity).
On the Government’s regulation of this declaration, flights for humanitarian reasons were maintained.
- Provedor de Justiçia (Joao Antonio Portugal, Coordinator), Email Correspondence with Michael Flynn (Global Detention Project), May 2020, https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/
- Portuguese Authorities Testing Migrants in a Hostel in Lisbon for Coronavirus, (Rafael Marchante, Reuters, “138 Migrants Infected with Coronavirus in Portugal Shelter,” InfoMigrants, 21 April 2020, https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/24247/138-migrants-infected-with-coronavirus-in-portugal-shelter)
