“The number is not 1.6 million; it was an attempt to inflate the situation. More than governmental electioneering, it was an attempt by AIMA’s board to show a service they didn’t perform,” stated Manuela Niza, a leader of the STM, in reaction to the interim report on the recovery of pending processes released this week.
According to Niza, the “work was entirely undertaken by the mission structure,” a team established by the government to address the backlog of regularization processes.
“The mission structure demonstrated that more personnel are not needed; rather, it is a matter of organization,” she criticized.
“There are not 1.6 million immigrants. It’s less, but it serves to present the largest number possible to depict a dire situation,” she added, estimating a lesser count of foreigners due to many cases involving non-residents in Portugal and other overestimated processes.
Nevertheless, Niza highlighted that the mission structure successfully showed AIMA how to resolve these issues: “With just over 200 people, 400,000 backlogs were addressed in six months.”
As the mission structure’s task is slated to conclude by the end of May, Niza expressed concerns about the potential resurgence of pending cases.
“By December, we are likely to see thousands of pending cases concerning family reunification or other matters,” she warned.
“Currently, we are greatly concerned because family reunifications are being denied for those without resident cards or with expired cards,” she said, “leading to concrete personal issues.”
“People’s lives are on hold waiting for documents, and this is unacceptable,” she stressed, noting instances of “students about to finish their studies who were never legally recognized in Portugal because they never had a resident card.”
Portuguese authorities estimate that 1.6 million foreign nationals will reside in Portugal by 2024, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The document detailed that by the end of December 2024, 1,546,521 foreign nationals were registered in Portugal, a figure expected “to be revised upwards by approximately 50,000” once the regularization requests under the ‘transitional regime’ enacted by the Assembly of the Republic are processed.
This regime allowed for the regularization of those already within national borders before June 3, 2024, a date marking the removal of the expression of interest provision—a legal tool that enabled tax-paying tourists to obtain a residency card.
“With this review, the estimated number of foreigners in Portugal in 2024 is around 1,600,000,” the report states, emphasizing that the Mission Structure for the Recovery of Pending Processes at AIMA required “a statistical correction to the number of foreign nationals in Portugal in years preceding 2024.”
Lusa Agency sought a comment from AIMA on the report’s data, but there has been no response yet.
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