Immigrants sleep on street for document checks // Airport chaos over new border system // Plans for new government, immigration’s role in vote

Portuguese news in English on Tuesday, May 27, 2025.

Immigrants sleeping on street for document checks

Dozens of immigrants have been sleeping at the door of the Foreign Affairs Ministry office in Porto to have their criminal record checks authenticated, Público reports. The rough nights have been prompted by longer-than-usual lines, caused in part by the temporary closure of the only other equivalent service, in Lisbon. The ministry’s press office said it was dealing with larger than usual demand due to the legalisation process under way by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA). Most of the people the newspaper spoke to had been told by AIMA to present their police or criminal record checks, amid other documents, to the Directorate General of Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities (DGACCP) for authentication. One Angolan woman said she’d spent five nights on the street. The ministry last week said it expected a return to normal within days, particularly given the Lisbon office had reopened.

Number refused residency almost doubles

Presidency Minister António Leitão Amaro said the number of rejected residency requests had reached close to 30,000, Público reports. The decisions would result in more people being told to voluntarily leave the country and another 110,000 decisions were pending, he said. Everyone notified has the right to contest the decision. AIMA president Pedro Portugal Gaspar said a working group had been created to evaluate the responses to the notifications “case by case”, Lusa reports. The government has announced it will maintain the AIMA “mission structure” set up to deal with the application backlog until the end of the year but will halve the size of the team, Público reports. Three lawyers have launched a petition to combat the long waiting times to obtain Portuguese citizenship, Público reports. They say the current waiting time can exceed three years and want to force the Institute of Registries and Notary to follow the legally mandated 90-day limit.

Authorities swoop on illegal housing in Lisbon

Municipal police have swooped on a restaurant in the Lisbon suburb of Arroios they claim was acting as illegal accomodation for about 30 immigrants, Público reports. Suriname’s King Restaurant was allegedly operating an illegal dormitory for Bangladeshi immigrants while also running a “dark kitchen” for delivery services. Arroios parish president Madalena Natividade said she was shocked by what had been found after complaints began to arrive. She said it fit within the broader issue of overloaded homes turned into illegal dormitories run by “mafias, illegal immigration networks, in which people are in a state of almost slavery”.

Photo: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.