Latest news and stories about detention centers in Portugal for expats and residents.
The government plans to increase the number of places in immigrant detention centers by 300 before the summer, with a long-term goal of reaching 600 spaces. These facilities are used to house individuals who have received official orders to leave the country.
Portugal has increased its capacity to 171 spaces across temporary reception centres for foreign nationals, with two spots allocated in the city of Beja.
Ten foreign citizens are being held in PSP police cells when they should be in temporary detention centres. In documents obtained by RTP, the police mention a “lack of national capacity” and admit they cannot guarantee the legal rights of these individuals.
The Public Security Police (PSP) has set a date: in August, the containers at the Santo António Housing Unit in Porto will be ready to receive more foreigners undergoing expulsion proceedings. The cost is nearly 800,000 euros, paid from the PSP's own funds, after Portugal missed out on 30 million euros from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) that would have funded two permanent installation centres. It is described as a “provisional solution,” though the author argues that the state's administrative failures—such as delays in family reunification and residence permit renewals—are the primary cause of this “illegality.” The piece criticises the government for criminalising immigrants due to its own bureaucratic incompetence, noting that even students paying high tuition fees are being pushed into irregularity before they even arrive in Portugal. The author concludes that there is no accountability for the state's institutional abandonment, only containers for detention.
