Author
The legal framework of detention centres is enshrined in Act 34/94 which provides for the detention of migrants in Temporary Installation Centres (Centros de Instalação Temporária, CIT) managed by PSP, either for security reasons (e.g., aimed at enforcing a removal from national territory) or for irregular entry at the border. Detention facilities at the border (EECIT),[1] which are not CIT per se, have been classified as such by Decree-Law 85/2000 for the purposes of detention following a refusal of entry at the border.[2]
| Detention capacity in border detention centres: 2025 | |||
| Detention centre | Total capacity | Capacity for male
detainees |
Capacity for female detainees |
| Detention facility – Lisbon airport | 18[3] | 10 | 4 |
| Detention facility – Porto airport | 18 | 18 | 0 |
| Detention facility – Faro airport | 13 | 10 | 3 |
Source: Information provided by PSP (April 2026). This refers to the total capacity of the detention centre and is thus not limited to asylum applicants specifically.
According to the information provided by PSP, CIT-UHSA has an overall capacity for 30 persons (26 males and 4 females / families).
According to the information provided by the authorities, none of the facilities mentioned above have dedicated places for asylum applicants.
| Persons detained at border detention facilities: 2025 | |||
| Detention centre | Total | Asylum applicants | Other migrants |
| Detention facility – Lisbon airport | 651 | 265 | 386 |
| Detention facility – Porto airport | 328 | 67 | 261 |
| Detention facility – Faro airport | 87 | 50 | 37 |
Source: Information provided by PSP (April 2026). This refers to the total capacity of the detention centre and is thus not limited to asylum applicants specifically.
The lack of capacity of the detention facilities referred to above has been frequently flagged by the authorities and many projects have been mentioned in the past as means to increase the detention capacity without significant follow-up.[4]
In February 2025, PSP was authorised to procure public works contracts for the construction of two new CITs in Odivelas and in Porto, with a total capacity of 300 people, to be completed by 30 June 2026 using Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) funding.[5] In November 2025, the project was removed from the PRR due to feasibility concerns over the planned timeframe.[6] In May 2026, it was announced that the existing administrative detention centres would be expanded using modular construction solutions (i.e. containers) for the time being.[7]
By the end of 2025, requalification and expansion works were underway at EECIT Lisbon and were about to commence at EECIT Faro.
CPR is unaware of the detention of asylum applicants in police stations or in regular prisons for the purposes of the asylum procedure.
It is publicly known that in the last quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024, asylum applicants and other migrants refused entry into national territory at Lisbon airport were frequently detained in the transit zone of the airport in appalling conditions (see: Conditions in detention facilities) due to the lack of capacity of the corresponding detention facility.[8] This practice worsened again in 2025, with asylum applicants remaining detained in the transit area of Lisbon airport for a few days until they were placed in administrative detention centres.
According to the information provided by PSP, there is no limit to the number of persons that may be detained in such spaces. PSP claimed that the average duration of detention in the transit zone for migrants later transferred to EECIT Lisbon was 2 days. It is not clear whether this figure includes asylum applicants. CPR’s observation points towards longer periods in 2025, including vulnerable people.
[1] Council of Ministers Resolution 76/97.
[2] See also Council of Ministers Resolution 76/97. In this context, it is important to underline, as recalled by the Ombudsperson: “The confinement of foreign citizens, including where it takes place in the international area of an airport, indeed consists in a deprivation of freedom (…) that goes beyond a mere restriction of freedom. On this matter cf. the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights n. º 19776/92, 25 June 1992 (Amuur v France).” Ombudsperson, Tratamento dos cidadãos estrangeiros em situação irregular ou requerentes de asilo nos centros de instalação temporária ou espaços equiparados, September 2017, available in Portuguese here, fn. 14 [unofficial translation].
[3] Includes a family room (capacity for 2 persons) and a multipurpose room for people with reduced mobility (capacity for 2 persons).
[4] For an overview of projects publicly mentioned in the past, please refer the to 2022 AIDA Update available here Regarding the lack of capacity of detention facilities See also: Ombudsperson, Mecanismo Nacional de Prevenção – Relatório à Assembleia da República 2022, July 2023, available here, 99-100.
[5] Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 28/2025, of 17 February 2025, available here.
[6] Diário de Notícias, Portugal perdeu o financiamento do PRR para os dois novos centros de instalação, 3 November 2025, available here.
[7] Público, Governo vai ter mais vagas para detenção de imigrantes com construções temporárias, 3 May 2026, available here.
[8] See, for instance: Diário de Notícias, Requerentes de asilo “dormem em bancos” no aeroporto. Sindicato da PSP denuncia situação “caótica”, 3 December 2023, available here; SIC Notícias, “Pomos roupa no chão e dormimos em cima”: 13 pessoas estão a viver no aeroporto de Lisboa, 20 December 2023, available here; Jornal de Notícias, Número de requerentes de asilo a viver no aeroporto “vai crescer”, 20 December 2023, available here.