Overview of the main changes since the previous report update

Author

Portuguese Refugee Council Visit Website

The report was previously updated in September 2025.

Background information

As documented in detail in previous editions of this report,^[1] in October 2023, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) replaced SEF as the national asylum authority, with AIMA’s National Centre for Asylum and Refugees (CNAR) becoming the specialised determining authority. The institutional change also entailed that existing general police forces became responsible for border control and for executing expulsion decisions. While the separation between administrative and law enforcement competencies is deemed as a positive element, CPR observed that the transition was neither gradual nor participatory, and the beginning of AIMA’s operation presented multiple challenges and potential protection shortcomings, as documented.

In 2025, CPR continued to observe multiple gaps in the implementation of legal norms concerning the asylum procedure and reception conditions, without proper account to the need to ensure the continuity of services despite institutional reforms.

2025 continued to be a particularly challenging year for civil society organisations involved in the provision of assistance to applicants and beneficiaries of international protection.[2] The State relies on civil society organisations for the provision of reception conditions, channelling funding mostly through AMIF projects. As projects are implemented for a limited period, organisations must continuously apply to new funding calls while ensuring uninterrupted provision of accommodation, and responses to these applications are frequently delayed. Furthermore, organisations are subject to substantially reduced values at the tender stage (5%) and significant delays in reimbursement during project implementation, requiring them to advance funds without certainty as to when reimbursement will occur, undermining the predictability and stability of the reception system. In 2025, this situation led at least one organisation to cease accommodating asylum applicants altogether, as was publicly reported, resulting in the loss of around 154 places in the reception system.[3]

The National Unit for Foreigners and Borders (UNEF) was established within PSP in July 2025,[4] assuming responsibility for airport border control, management of administrative detention centres, monitoring of third-country nationals on national territory, and return procedures (forced removal, expulsion, readmission and voluntary return). Accordingly, AIMA is no longer in charge of removal procedures.

Political discourse has prioritised the detention, control and return of third-country nationals over the strengthening of procedural guarantees and the effectiveness of the asylum system. Of the 41 measures announced by the Government in June 2024 as part of its national plan for migration and asylum,[5] limited progress was observed regarding compliance with decision deadlines in international protection cases, the acceleration of judicial appeals, the prioritisation of family and children’s cases, the fulfilment of resettlement and relocation commitments, and the strengthening of cooperation with civil society organisations to expand reception capacity for asylum applicants and unaccompanied children.

This is further compounded by the legislative amendments and initiatives discussed throughout 2025.

In June 2025, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)[6] acknowledged Portugal’s generally positive legal framework for the protection and integration of refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection, whilst noting persisting challenges reported by civil society, including difficulties in obtaining information on asylum procedures, gaps in registration and implementation of the asylum procedure, and insufficient reception conditions, particularly for unaccompanied children. ECRI also welcomed the recognition of CPR as an integral part of the national asylum system under the Asylum Act, and encouraged the authorities to consult and work with NGOs to address obstacles in integration.

Background information – Legislative initiatives

In December 2025, a public consultation was launched on a draft law amending the return regime, which would entail amendments to the Asylum Act, the Immigration Act, and the Act regulating Temporary Installation Centres.[7] Aimed at accelerating return procedures, the proposal significantly weakens fundamental principles and guarantees of the asylum procedure, including through:

• Removal of the current safeguard that suspends administrative or criminal proceedings for irregular entry or stay while an asylum application is under examination (and are dismissed if international protection is granted), thereby exposing applicants to such proceedings during the asylum procedure;
• Revocation of the currently automatic and tacit admission to the regular procedure;
• Removal of the suspensive effect of appeals against negative decisions in international protection procedures, with immediate initiation of forced removal proceedings upon notification of the refusal of an asylum application;
• Elimination of the voluntary departure notification;
• Significant increase in detention periods for asylum applicants: from 7 working days to 60 days pending an admissibility decision in border procedures, and up to 180 days (extendable by an equal period) pending an appeal of a refusal of an asylum application;
• Introduction of irregular entry or stay as an autonomous ground for administrative detention of asylum applicants.[8]

In March 2026, the draft law was approved by the Council of Ministers[9] – largely unchanged from the December 2025 text – and submitted to Parliament.[10] As of May 2026, it was awaiting committee discussion and vote.

In February 2025, a Parliamentary Resolution recommended that the Government ensure that healthcare providers comply with their obligation to register and monitor information on foreign nationals accessing the NHS; upgrade IT systems to enable data sharing between the NHS, AIMA and the Tax Authority to verify patients’ status at the point of admission; and guarantee access to healthcare for migrants in proven financial hardship who have initiated their regularisation process.[11]

International protection

• Key asylum statistics – first instance:[12] According to the information provided by AIMA, in 2025, the Portuguese authorities registered 1,765 applications for international protection (including 2 made by persons relocated to Portugal). According to Eurostat data a total of 1,760 asylum applications were registered in Portugal in 2025.^[13] It was not possible to determine the recognition rate as AIMA did not share information (see Statistics). While the nature of the caseload of the asylum authority may vary from year to year, NGOs have highlighted many concerns with the asylum procedure and procedural safeguards in 2025 (see below).
• Key asylum statistics – appeals: According to CSTAF, a total of 510 appeals were lodged against negative asylum decisions in 2025, an increase of around 11% compared to 2024. The information provided by the CSTAF for 2025 regarding the outcome of judicial reviews of first instance decisions indicates a 26% success rate at first appeal stage (see Statistics).
• EU infringement procedure: As previously in the update on 2023, in January 2023, the European Commission announced having opened infringement procedures to Portugal “for failing to transpose in a fully conform manner all provisions” of both the Qualification and the Reception Conditions Directives.[14] As of October 2025, the case relating to the incorrect transposition of the Reception Conditions Directive appears to be closed but there is no publicly available information on conclusions/developments. The case relating to the incorrect transposition of the Qualification Directive is still active, but without further developments.[15]

Asylum procedure

• Legal access to the territory: A total of 258 refugees were resettled to Portugal in 2025. These arrivals still correspond to the 2023 quota, whilst the 2024-2025 pledge of 600 persons remains unfulfilled (see Legal access to the territory).
• Registration of asylum applications and access to the asylum authority: The lack of national implementation of CNAR services and the unavailability of other AIMA services have had a significant impact on access to the procedure and to services relating to international protection, with numerous reports of these difficulties outside Lisbon, as acknowledged by the Agency. According to CPR’s observation, in 2025 the difficulties included the presentation and registration of applications for international protection, the obtaining of information, the renewal of documentation, amongst other rights explicitly recognised by the Asylum Act. These limitations are particularly concerning given AIMA’s policy on accelerated procedures, as well as AIMA and ISS’s policies on decentralising reception. The intervention of civil society organisations was necessary in order to ensure access to information, services and documentation, as corroborated by CPR, JRS, Crescer, Aldeias de Crianças SOS, and Associação VITAE (see: Asylum Procedure – Registration of the asylum application and Regular procedure).
• Delays in the processing of regular asylum applications: According to AIMA, the number of pending cases at first instance by the end of the year was 8,836. The Ombudsperson reported that among the complaints it received in 2024 was an application for international protection submitted in October 2016 that had still not been decided.[16] Based on the information CPR was able to gather on 96 regular procedure decisions issued in the course of 2025, the overall duration of the procedure ranged from 104 to 3,099 days, with an average duration of 662 days. (see Regular procedure).
• Interviews: Concerning systematic practices regarding asylum interviews were and/or continued to be observed throughout 2025, notably:
  • Inappropriate or intrusive questions relating to applications based on LGBTIQ+ grounds or religious grounds;
  • Insufficient follow-up questions to elaborate on relevant points, with interviewers strictly following the template;^[17]
  • Problems with interpretation, particularly due to the language used or the lack of interpreters for certain languages (see Personal Interview).
• Length of appeals procedures: information provided by the High Council of Administrative and Fiscal Courts (Conselho Superior dos Tribunais Administrativos e Fiscais – CSTAF) regarding the duration of judicial reviews of first instance decisions reveals that, in 2025, the average duration of appeals at first instance courts was of 77 days (see Regular procedure – Appeals).
• Dublin: According to the information provided by AIMA, only 4 Dublin transfers were implemented out of the total of 375 outgoing requests, out of which 235 accepted. The transfer rate (calculated on the basis of accepted requests) was thus of 1.7% in 2025.[18] (see Dublin).
• Resumption of the border procedure: The application of the border procedure resumed in November 2023 and it has been systematically applied since then, including to vulnerable applicants. CPR has observed a number of problematic practices impacting the procedural guarantees of asylum applicants subjected to the border procedure and the corresponding use of detention (as well as detention conditions) (see Border procedure).
• Admissibility and accelerated procedures: In 2025 CPR continued to observe a significant number of cases where applications are simultaneously deemed inadmissible and rejected as manifestly ill-founded. There are some cases that are moreover deemed excluded from subsidiary protection^[19] (including in border procedures). CPR also continued to observe significant delays in the recognition of automatic admission to the regular procedure from admissibility and accelerated procedures, frequently requiring proactive intervention by the applicant or their legal counsel. Accelerated procedures continued to be used very often in 2025, especially based on irrelevance grounds, followed by the use of the Safe Country of Origin concept and grounds such as misleading the authorities and/or entering or prolonging the stay in the country unlawfully and failing to present an asylum application as soon as possible, without proper evidence to support the use of these grounds (See Accelerated procedure and Admissibility procedure).
• Vulnerable applicants:
  • Age assessment of unaccompanied children: Since 2024, AIMA often suspends asylum procedures in cases involving unaccompanied children referred to the Family and Juvenile Courts,^[20] on the basis of general administrative rules.^[21] According to CPR’s observations, these suspensions are rarely notified to the child applicant and their legal representative, and tend to be prolonged, in some cases lasting several months or even a year – well beyond the 30 working-day limit established by law for accelerated and admissibility procedures.^[22] During this period, no progress is made in the asylum procedure, as the child is not heard on the merits of the claim and is only entitled to a certificate of asylum application (see Guarantees for vulnerable groups).

• Special procedural guarantees: In cases where AIMA identified vulnerabilities that did not allow the procedure to continue, the Agency systematically suspended proceedings under general administrative rules rather than providing special procedural guarantees (namely postponement of the interview or admission to the regular procedure), even in cases where the incapacity was evident and the Agency had itself requested medical reports. According to CPR’s observations, such suspensions tend to be prolonged, in some cases lasting several months, well beyond the 30 working-day limit established by law for accelerated and admissibility procedures.^[23]
• Differential treatment of specific nationalities in the procedure: In 2025 AIMA confirmed that it had adopted a fast-track processing on the basis of nationality in cases of Afghan women and families admitted in Portugal under the Humanitarian Admission Programme. The prioritisation was justified by the well-established risk profile of Afghanistan, high recognition rates, and the straightforward nature of these cases, which did not require complex factual or legal assessment. As a result, 35 cases of Afghan women were decided in 2025 without a personal interview (see Differential treatment of specific nationalities in the procedure).

Reception conditions

• Issues in the provision of material reception conditions: In 2025, while the difficulties documented in 2024 appear to have diminished somewhat, several concerns persisted. As conceded by AIMA, access to services continued to be hampered by difficulties in contacting AIMA outside Lisbon, with registration of asylum applications only accepted in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, directly impacting the provision of reception conditions. Cases were also reported of applicants being told they required appointments or being directed to other AIMA offices. Reports of a lack of information, social support and reception solutions following the presentation of an application persisted, including reports of applicants (notably those released from administrative detention facilities) having to resort to the 144 social emergency line due to the absence of reception solutions. Furthermore, difficulties encountered in accessing AIMA services to obtain information, carry out procedural formalities or renew documentation are particularly concerning given AIMA and ISS’s policies on decentralising reception at any stage of the procedure (see Reception conditions).
• Reception response after release from detention: CPR is aware that in some cases in 2025 the release from detention was delayed due to the lack of reception responses on national territory, including applicants with special reception needs, even where a court order for release had been issued (see The right to reception and sufficient resources).
• Right to education: In 2025, a number of new legal provisions entered into force with relevance for asylum applicants and beneficiaries of international protection, including an exemption from lower secondary final exams for students entering the Portuguese education system during the exam year,^[24] the adoption of progressive integration measures tailored to students’ sociolinguistic profile,^[25] and a simplified school placement framework allowing schools to approve placement without a formal equivalency process for the first eight years of schooling^[26] (see Access to Education).
• Health care: In April 2025, two Ministerial Orders entered into force clarifying that incomplete registrations are permitted for up to 180 days without interruption of healthcare access,[27] and that asylum applicants are eligible for registration in primary healthcare and assignment to a family health team.[28] According to NGOs, difficulties in accessing healthcare persist nationwide, driven largely by inconsistent practices among healthcare providers and unfamiliarity with the applicable legal framework, and were in most cases only overcome through privileged channels established between the entities and the Local Health Units (see Health care).

Detention of asylum applicants

• Resumption of the border procedure: The application of border procedures and of detention of asylum applicants subjected to border procedures resumed in November 2023 and it has been systematically applied since then. In 2025, asylum applicants were again frequently detained in the transit zone of the airport in appalling conditions due to the lack of capacity of the corresponding detention facility (see Border procedure and Detention).
• Detention statistics: PSP reported that a total of 449 asylum applicants were subject to administrative detention, of which 382 at the border and 67 at CIT-UHSA: 330 due to refusal of entry and asylum application made at the border and 119 within the context of a removal procedure or judicial expulsion.
• Grounds for detention: In December 2025, following public reports,^[29] MPs raised concerns about courts systematically ordering the detention of asylum applicants contrary to PSP assessments and without considering alternatives to detention, and questioned the Government on the operationalisation of a dedicated hearing room at Lisbon airport, similar structures at other airports, and measures to ensure compliance with national and international law.^[30] In response, the Minister of the Presidency made reference to plans to expand alternatives to detention, and the Minister of Justice clarified that a hearing room at Lisbon airport is expected to open in 2026, with no equivalent structures planned for other airports.^[31] According to the Minister, dialogue with the Judicial High Council on alternatives to detention is ongoing, with training for courts on asylum matters planned.
• Detention of vulnerable applicants: There is no formal and systematic mechanism of identification of vulnerabilities at border points. While CPR noted an improvement in PSP’s internal procedures, particularly regarding the non-detention of unaccompanied children and of accompanied children up to the age of 12, in 2025 it also observed that particularly vulnerable persons, such as children, pregnant women, elderly and sick people, victims of torture/violence and others, were held in detention, including in the transit zone. Despite the fact that responsibility for promoting special procedural guarantees that could lead to the release from detention lies with AIMA, it seems that the Agency has no decision-making power on the conditions and maintenance of detention of asylum applicants at the border (see Detention of vulnerable applicants).
• Detention conditions: Despite public statements, the detention capacity in Portugal was not increased in 2025 (see Detention conditions).
• Judicial review: in CPR’s experience, judicial decisions frequently automatically approve detention orders of the border authority without an assessment of necessity and proportionality or consideration of the individual characteristics of the applicants involved, even contrary to PSP assessments and without considering alternatives to detention (see Judicial review of the detention order).

Content of international protection

• Status and residence: The lack of national implementation of CNAR services and the unavailability of other AIMA services have had a significant impact on access to the procedure and to services relating to international protection, with numerous reports of these difficulties outside Lisbon, as acknowledged by the Agency. According to CPR’s observation, in 2025 the difficulties include the obtaining of information and the renewal of documentation by beneficiaries of international protection, amongst other rights explicitly recognised by the Asylum Act (see Status and residence).
• Cessation and review of protection status: In cases of family reunification procedures where the sponsor acquires Portuguese nationality, CPR identified that it is AIMA’s practice not to renew residence permits for reunited family members and instead refer them to the law regulating the free movement and residence of EU citizens and their families in national territory^[32] or to the regularisation regime under the Immigration Act. Both regimes require the presentation of documents from the country of origin. CPR also identified the same practice in cases of child beneficiaries, who have gone through the asylum procedure in Portugal and whose granting of international protection was not previously considered autonomous but rather an extension of that of the adult. Children and other family members were not notified of any decision to cease the extension of international protection and therefore had no right to an adversarial hearing nor right to judicial review of the authority’s decision (see Cessation and review of protection status).
• Family reunification: An amendment in October 2025 to the Immigration Act introduced a two-year minimum residence requirement before a family reunification application may be lodged and extended the decision-making deadline to nine months; beneficiaries of international protection are exempt from the two-year requirement (see Family Reunification).

• Naturalisation: An amendment in May 2026 to the Nationality Act significantly restricts access to Portuguese nationality, notably by increasing the minimum period of prior legal residence required for naturalisation to 10 years for most nationals and 7 years for EU citizens and nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries (see Naturalisation).

Temporary protection

The information given hereafter constitute a short summary of the Annex on Temporary Protection in 2025, for further information, see Annex on Temporary Protection.

• Key temporary protection statistics: According to AIMA, there were 66,740 beneficiaries of temporary protection registered in the country by the end of 2025, out of which 61,908 were Ukrainian citizens. Out of these, 4,832 were third-country nationals that lived in Ukraine, mostly from Nigeria, Morocco, India, Algeria and Russia.[33] According to Eurostat’s data on granting of temporary protection, a total of 77,920 persons have been granted temporary protection in Portugal since the activation of the mechanism, out of which 5,030 in 2025.^[34]
• Duration of temporary protection: The duration of temporary protection has been extended on several occasions. In February 2025, a law amended Article 7 of the Temporary Protection Act to remove the previous time limit foreseen.^[35] Previously, the law provided for a maximum time limit of three years of temporary protection, all extension periods included. With the amendment, extension of temporary protection may occur on the grounds that the reasons justifying its upholding, recognised by a decision of the Council of the European Union and for the period indicated therein, still exist. Consequently, in March 2025, the Government approved a Resolution extending the validity of temporary residence permits from 1 March 2025 to 4 March 2026.^[36] In March 2026, the validity was extended once again, until 4 March 2027.^[37]
• Cancelation of temporary protection: As was publicly reported,[38] in 2025 AIMA proceeded with the cancellation of temporary protection for third-country nationals who had initially been granted protection in Portugal when the personal scope of the protection was broader. According to AIMA, all such cases were being reviewed in line with EU guidance, following an individual analysis to verify compliance with the applicable legal requirements.[39] According to CPR’s experience in providing legal information, affected individuals were not heard prior to the draft cancelation decision, nor were they requested to submit supporting documentation.

^[1] For detailed information on the process and its origins prior to 2023, please refer to previous AIDA reports.

[2] For example, at the end of 2025, CPR was still experiencing repercussions of the transition between financial frameworks in 2023, as the non-payment of amounts owed for that year continued to prevent the organisation from fully recovering financially.

[3] Jornal Expresso, Centros de asilo podem fechar e não há certezas para quem lá vive agora, 20 November 2025, available here.

[4] Act 55-C/2025, of 22 July 2025, creating the National Foreigners and Borders Unit (UNEF), available here.

[5] Presidência do Conselho de Ministros, Plano de Ação para as Migrações: Problemas, Desafios, Princípios e Ações, June 2024, available here.

[6]  ECRI, ECRI Report on Portugal – sixth monitoring cycle, June 2025, available here, 21.

[7] Public Consultation on the draft law amending Law 34/94 of 14 September, Immigration Act and Asylum Act, available here.

[8] In its submission, CPR expressed serious concern regarding the risk of violation of the Geneva Convention, in particular the principle of non-penalisation for irregular entry and the principle of non-refoulement, as well as the significant reduction in procedural guarantees. These concerns are particularly acute given the absence in practice of mechanisms to systematically assess the risk of refoulement and the institutional coordination failures already observed. See: CPR, Posição do CPR sobre a Proposta de Lei que altera a Lei n.º 34/94, de 14 de setembro, a Lei n.º 23/2007, de 4 de julho, e a Lei n.º 27/2008, de 30 de junho, e o seu impacto na situação dos requerentes e beneficiários de proteção internacional em Portugal, December 2025, available in Portuguese here.

[9] Communiqué of the Council of Ministers of 19 March 2026, available here.

[10 See here.

[11] Resolução da Assembleia da República no. 47/2025, 25 February 2025, available here.

[12] According to the Agency, the statistical data provided do not correspond to AIMA’s official figures for 2025. As of May 2026, the data for 2025 have not yet been consolidated, so the data provided for the report should be considered preliminary.

^[13] Eurostat, Asylum applicants by type, citizenship, age and sex – annual aggregated data, available here.

[14] European Commission, January Infringements package: key decisions, 26 January 2023, available here. See also: Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), Asylum and Migration: Progress Achieved and Remaining Challenges, p.29, April 2023, available here.

[15] See here, searching for INFR(2022)2149 and INFR(2022)2153.

[16] Ombudsperson, Relatório à Assembleia da República 2024, July 2025, available here, 51.

[17] This has also been confirmed by JRS to the 2025 AIDA Report.

[18] The transfer rate on the basis of the overall number of outgoing requests was of 1.07%.

^[19] In what seems to be a wrong interpretation of the concept of exclusion given that, despite resorting to the concept of exclusion, in the decisions analysed, the authorities do not substantiate that an exclusion clause is verified, but merely that the inclusion requirements are not verified.

[20] AIMA confirmed this practice when providing information for the 2025 AIDA report.

^[21] Article 38(1) Administrative Procedure Code.

[22] Article 20(1) Asylum Act.

[23] Article 20(1) Asylum Act.

[24] Legislative Order no. 4/2024, 21 February 2024, Article 12(7).

[25] Order 29/2025/1 of 7 February 2025 and Order 86/2025/1 of 6 March 2025.

[26] Decree-Law 7/2025, 11 February 2025.

[27] Ministerial Order 14830/2024, of 16 December 2024.

[28] Ministerial Order 40/2025, of 2 January 2025.

[29] Público, Tribunais ignoram pareceres da PSP e ordenam detenção sistemática de requerentes de asilo, 19 November 2025, available here.

[30] Parliament, Questions 725/XVII/1 and 726/XVII/1, December 2025, available here and here.

[31] Parliament, Answers to Questions 725/XVII/1 and 726/XVII/1, December 2025, available here and here.

[32] Act no. 37/2006 of 9 August, available here.

[33] According to the Agency, the statistical data provided do not correspond to AIMA’s official figures for 2025. As of May 2026, the data for 2025 have not yet been consolidated, so the data provided for the report should be considered preliminary.

[34] Eurostat, Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex – monthly data, available here.

[35] Act no. 20-A/2025, 26 February 2025, available here.

[36] Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 47/2025, 17 March 2025, available here.

[37] Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 53-A/2026, 12 March 2026, available here.

[38] Público, Estado ameaça expulsar estudantes imigrantes legais que fugiram da guerra na Ucrânia, 28 October 2025, available here.

[39] Information provided by AIMA, May 2026.