The Government is studying “transitional solutions” to settle detained immigrants in Portugal. One of these solutions could involve “using a building”, said the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro. The announcement was made this afternoon, December 4th, at a press conference in which the the new law that will facilitate the removal of immigrants from the country.
“Between some temporary expansion of existing units and the use of a building that can be converted, [procuramos] a faster adjustment, respecting rights”, he stated. The objective is to create more places to receive these people while the two new centers planned are not completed.
The works, however, will take longer than expected. As DN reported in November, the Government missed the deadline for the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which would finance the investment. “The PRR deadlines were always very short and the conclusion reached by the PSP analysis process was that the procedure, whether contracting or after carrying out the work, would take longer than the PRR calendar would allow”, explained Leitão Amaro. THE value is in the order of 30 million euros.
The initial completion forecast pointed to the summer of 2026. “The PSP, when it communicated to us the difficulty in completing it within the PRR horizon, which is the beginning of the summer of 2026, explained the reasons and sent us an updated program, which foresees a few more months of execution”, added the minister.
Without PRR funds, the investment will be supported by the State Budgetsaid the ruler. Currently, the public tender is taking place to select the company responsible for building the two new centers.
One of them will be located in Lisbon and the other in the North region, and “will have better, more dignified, more competent and capable conditions as they are facilities created from scratch“, highlighted António Leitão Amaro. Regarding the provisional solutions, he assured that the places “are not prisons, but they are not hotels either”. These centers are intended for immigrants detained because they do not have the right to remain in the country, and installation for committing crimes is not in question.
Currently, there are two centers in the country: one in Porto and the other at Lisbon Airport. According to the minister, these units are often without vacanciesas revealed in a press conference a few months ago.
amanda.lima@dn.pt