60,000 is the total number of Ukrainian refugees living in the country. Portugal is not planning mass deportations, but only wants to regulate the legal status of migrants after the temporary protection expires. Currently, temporary protection for Ukrainians in Portugal, as in the entire EU, is valid until March 2027.
Propaganda sources report that Portugal is allegedly going to deport 60,000 Ukrainian refugees due to changes in legislation. In addition, 5,000 Belarusians who received political asylum in the country will have to return home. «It seems that European hospitality ended exactly when it had to be paid for», ironically conclude publications on this topic.
However, this information is not true. The Portuguese Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has indeed initiated an audit of the validity of residence permits (mainly for foreign students) in order to comply with the requirements of the European Commission. However, this audit does not mean automatic deportation: on the contrary, the procedure will help students to switch to other legal statuses in order to continue their studies in the country even after the end of the temporary protection. In addition, 60,000 is the total number of Ukrainian refugees living in the country; of course,no one is planning to deport all of them home.
As a reminder, the Portuguese government has adopted amendments to the legislation that extend the temporary protection for Ukrainians until March 4, 2027. Under this status Ukrainians have guarantees of residence, access to work, healthcare and education, as provided for in the original law on temporary protection. At the same time, new applications for temporary protection from Ukrainians in Portugal are not being accepted: Ukrainians are no longer able to enter without a visa and legalize on the spot. Instead they must obtain an appropriate visa in advance at the Portuguese consulate, just as citizens of other countries planning to move to Portugal.
Almost since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has been regularly spreading fakes about the legal status of Ukrainian refugees abroad. However, their pessimistic forecasts of «mass deportations» and «sudden and complete cancellation of financial support» have yet to come true. We have previously refuted similar manipulations about Sweden, Germany, France, Norway and Finland.
