Portugal Moves to Speed Up Deportations, Raising Questions for Employers and Foreign Residents
Europe’s ongoing tug-of-war over irregular migration reached the Portuguese kitchen table again this week, after Prime Minister Luís Montenegro used a summit in Slovenia to argue that anyone who slips into the European Union without papers should be sent home. For residents in Portugal — a country built on emigration and currently dependent on foreign labour — the message lands at the intersection of economic pragmatism and moral unease. Below we untangle why the call for tougher returns, long a Brussels talking point, suddenly looks set to shape Portuguese law and, potentially, your local job market.
What the Prime Minister actually said in Portorož
The closing press conference of the MED9 gathering offered Montenegro a stage he rarely gets: an audience of fellow leaders from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia and Croatia. There he insisted that the bloc can only tap “good human resources” if immigration is regulated, stressing that “consequence”, for those arriving outside official channels, must mean return. The Portuguese leader linked the policy to dismantling smuggling networks, portraying organised trafficking as both a humanitarian tragedy and a national-security threat. Although his tone was firm, insiders travelling with the delegation say he framed the measure as complementing — not replacing — Portugal’s drive to attract skilled workers through faster visas.
Why forced return climbed the Brussels agenda
Several factors converged in 2025. The European Commission tabled a blueprint for a common return system, Bulgaria revived talk of mandatory mutual recognition of expulsion orders, and London’s new government cut a bilateral deal with Paris to push back Channel crossers. Behind the scenes, Frontex, the EU border agency, has been quietly upgraded with extra aircraft, liaison officers and legal powers to organise charter flights. Diplomats from Lisbon to Stockholm whisper that the real catalyst is domestic politics: polls show voters anxious about border control even as employers call for more hands in construction, farming and elder care. The Commission’s draft mentions extending detention to 24 months, adding a 10-year entry ban and creating offshore "return centres" — proposals that hardened the rhetoric of several Mediterranean states, including Portugal.
The numbers that worry finance ministries
Officially, Frontex logged 238,626 irregular entries in 2024 and another 112,375 between January and August this year, a dip of 21% yet still higher than pre-pandemic flows. Eurostat, meanwhile, reports just 28,355 effective repatriations in the second quarter of 2025 — roughly 1 in 5 of all final rejection cases. More than 53% of those departures were voluntary, leaving governments to finance the costlier forced removals. Lisbon’s treasury calculates that each enforced return can exceed €9,000 once detention, escort staff and airfares are counted. That bill grows if migrants destroy travel documents, an increasingly common tactic that forces consular negotiations stretching for months. Faced with hospital waiting lists and mortgage stress at home, Portuguese taxpayers are beginning to ask why Brussels’ 20% return rate remains so low.
Civil-rights groups versus security hawks
Human-rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Portugal’s own Pro-Dignitate brand the Commission plan a shortcut to mass detention that risks violating the principle of non-refoulement. They warn of "fictional non-entry" zones in which families with children could languish without clear legal status. On the opposite flank, interior ministers from Austria, Sweden and Greece argue that lax enforcement fuels far-right narratives and leaves the Schengen area politically exposed. In Portugal, the Catholic Church has urged lawmakers to remember the nation’s migrant past, while business lobbies fear that a perception of hostility might scare away talent crucial for meeting the 2.7% GDP growth target pencilled into next year’s budget.
How Portuguese law could change
Montenegro’s Cabinet is preparing an overhaul of the Foreigners Act, last amended in 2022 when humanitarian corridors from Ukraine dominated debate. Early drafts seen by Público’s Brussels correspondent suggest Lisbon will adopt the EU-level "Return Order" template, streamline court appeals to a single instance and allow immigration police to detain non-cooperative migrants for up to 60 days — quadruple the current limit. The government also wants to expand the network of "safe country" agreements beyond Cape Verde to Morocco, Senegal and, controversially, Guinea-Bissau. Civil servants insist that seasonal-work quotas and the popular digital-nomad visa will remain untouched, hoping to reassure Portuguese tech hubs starved of engineers.
What to watch next
The European Parliament begins final negotiations on the return package in mid-November amid expectations of a tight vote. Should the rules pass, they would take effect in June 2026, giving Lisbon roughly 10 months to transpose them. For residents, the changes could manifest first at airports, where border control booths will switch to a new biometric database, and later in municipalities asked to co-fund reception — and perhaps detention — facilities. Critics promise constitutional challenges, citing Portugal’s guarantee of human dignity. Supporters reply that without credible enforcement, the legal right to asylum loses public legitimacy. One thing is certain: the balance between welcome and withdrawal is no longer an abstract Brussels quarrel; it is poised to shape neighbourhoods from Algarve orange groves to Porto’s construction cranes.