The number of immigrants in Portugal almost quadrupled from 2017 to 2024, according to the interim report released by the Agency for Integration, Migrations, and Asylum (AIMA) this Tuesday. As of December 31, 2024, there were at least 1,546,521 foreign citizens in Portugal, compared to 421,785 immigrants registered seven years earlier.
The figures recorded in 2024 are expected to be corrected “upwards”, notably by about 50,000 citizens, “once the processing of regularization requests under the ‘transitional regime’ established by the Assembly of the Republic (Law No. 40/2024) is completed”, the document states.
“These approximately 50,000 citizens were already on national territory before June 3, 2024, and have already submitted requests under the transitional regime. It is estimated that, with this revision, the number of foreigners in Portugal in 2024 will be around 1,600,000,” it added.
The report also highlighted that “the work already carried out by the Task Force for the Recovery of Pending Processes at AIMA implies a statistical correction to the number of foreign citizens in Portugal in the years prior to 2024”, resulting in an upward revision from 1,044,606 to 1,293,463 foreign citizens in 2023, “which represents an increase of 248,857 compared to the number presented in the Migration and Asylum Report for 2023”.
The data also pointed to the entry of “61,648 foreign citizens residing in the country under the temporary protection regime for people displaced from Ukraine” between 2022 and 2023, due to the invasion launched by Russia in that country.
“Regarding the expressions of interest that were pending as of June 3, 2024, the current status is: 446,921 expressions of interest pending, which were distributed to the Task Force for notification of fee payments and scheduling; 261,101 appointments scheduled (of which 241,183 in-person attendances were carried out); 177,026 notifications for extinction,” the report detailed.
The document further noted that “after the end of the expression of interest regime on June 3, 2024, there was a 59% reduction in the flow of foreign citizens entering Portugal seeking to obtain a residence permit“, dropping from 156,951 in the first half of 2024 to 64,848 in the second half of 2024.
The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, blamed the previous socialist government for a policy of “lack of control” in the regime for the entry of foreigners, which enabled the quadrupling of the number of immigrants over seven years.
Lusa | 20:18 – 08/04/2025
[Updated at 18:56]
