Portugal: Documents for all immigrants who comply with Portuguese law – minister

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Portugal: Documents for all immigrants who comply with Portuguese law – minister

8:09 CAT | 24 Apr 2025

Photo: Lusa

Portugal’s Cabinet office minister responded on Wednesday to the immigrants who demonstrated in Porto to demand “documents for all” with the phrase documents for “everyone who complies with Portuguese law”.

Leitão Amaro was speaking after the Cabinet meeting, when asked about the demonstration that today brought together dozens of immigrants near the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) offices in Porto, to demand swift responses to their requests for regularisation, shouting slogans such as ‘documents for all, all, all’ (in an allusion to a message from Pope Francis at the Catholic Church World Youth Day event in Lisbon last year).

“We’ve moved the documentation processes forward, at the same time as incorporating various security reinforcement and control measures, and we’ve responded to the people who say “we want documents for everyone, everyone, everyone”, (with) “everyone who complies with Portuguese law,” replied the minister.

In the minister’s words, the state responds with ‘speed and justice’ to those who comply with the law.

“The days of turning a blind eye to the lack of criminal records in countries of origin, of turning a blind eye to the need to collect biometric data, are over for those who don’t comply with Portuguese law. The time when rules are disregarded is over. This is unfair to those who came with the effort to comply with the laws and it’s unfair to all the Portuguese who comply with the laws on a daily basis,” said Leitão Amaro.

The minister said that the government has listened to those who are concerned because the state is slow to respond to their requests and has reacted, just as it has listened to those who are concerned “because for too long there has been a lack of control of immigration policy, a lack of control of flows, of basic security requirements, an ignoring of demands and control”.

He added: “We can tell both sides that immigration policy really did change 11 months ago,” and that today it is no longer uncontrolled, but regulated and humanist.

Leitão Amaro said that “great progress” had been made on the 440,000 requests for documentation, and that “a large part” of the 220,000 cases with immigrants from the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP) to renew and replace documents had been dealt with.

Source: Lusa