New action plan for migrations

On June 3rd, the Council of Ministers approved the Plan of Action for Migrations, in which the Government underlined that Portugal needs:

• Immigrants as an answer to social, economic, and demographic issues;
• Regulated immigration with a working monitoring system;
• To welcome and integrate immigrants with humanism and respect for their fundamental rights;
• To retain national talent while attracting foreign qualified workers and young students;
• To have a functioning State, with strong and flexible public institutions in accordance with the Law;
• A decision-making system that is closer to the people and that involves municipalities and the civil society;

Based on these fundamental principles, the Government approved measures which include:

1. The extinction of the Expression of Interest procedure;
2. The institution of an Urgent Procedure to address the ca. 400,000 pending requests at AIMA;
3. The streamlining of the following immigration entry channels: (i) family regrouping; (ii) qualified workers; (iii) young students, and (iv) Portuguese-speaking countries’ nationals;
4. The implementation of new border control systems;
5. Measures to attract the immigration and integration of qualified workers and young students;
6. The restructuration of AIMA and the reinforcement of its operational capacity.