Lisbon, March 21, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's minister for the presidency, António Leitão Amaro, said on Friday that the existence of many foreign citizens at the same address indicates crimes associated with illegal immigration and suggested changes to the regularisation rules.
In recent weeks, several cases of letters to foreign citizens living at the same address have made the news, prompting the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) to bring these situations to the attention of the authorities, at the government's behest.
"The Portuguese legal apparatus, with regard to permits after entry, after the termination of the expression of interest [a legal recourse that allowed for the regularisation of foreigners without work visas], has improved a lot," but "we are making a permanent effort and I believe that, also in the context of the coming months, we can discuss some more measures," explained the minister.
In itself, the existence of several people at the same address is not a criminal offence. "While it is true that the number of people registered in itself, greater or lesser, is not illegal", some of "these accumulations can be signs of cases of labour exploitation, aiding illegal immigration or human exploitation", considered Leitão Amaro.
Therefore, "when we see signs of behaviour that may be inappropriate, in which human beings are treated inappropriately or live in inhumane conditions, the Portuguese authorities must act and that is what we have done," he added.
In the first quarter of this year, AIMA began notifying immigrants by post who had made an expression of interest and had their regularisation process rejected.
The videos shared on social media of "dozens of letters sent to the same address" were due to the end of the administrative process, but also "because of the lack of control of the wide-open doors" that, according to Leitão Amaro, existed in the past.
"These were all situations that had built up before" and correspond to old addresses, referring to the years 2022 and 2023, explained Leitão Amaro, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the conference "Family, Immigration and Discrimination", organised by the National Confederation of Family Associations (CNAF).
When he took office, the country had 440,000 cases pending regularisation, the majority relating to requests for expressions of interest, to which was added the renewal of Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) visas, in the region of 220,000, as well as 40,000 cases of investment visa backlogs.
"During the month of April we will take stock of the situation, to the extent that the AIMA and the mission structure are finishing their work," explained Leitão Amaro, who praised the work of the partners.
With regard to the 440,000 pending cases, these are already "practically all dealt with" and the remaining cases are already being dealt with, in an example of "extraordinary work by the public services, in collaboration with various civil society groups", he added.
This week, an AIMA source told Lusa that it had notified the judicial authorities of the existence of a thousand cases of foreign citizens registered at the same addresses.
In the process of notifications regarding requests for expressions of interest, an appeal that allowed immigrants who didn't have work visas to be legalised, "reports have already been sent to the entities with supervisory and criminal investigation powers regarding more than a thousand foreign citizens registered at the same addresses", according to AIMA.
"AIMA is carrying out an exhaustive check of all the addresses declared in these processes and is reporting to the authorities on an ongoing basis," added the same source.
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