The Portuguese Ministry of Internal Administration has announced a bilateral agreement for a pilot relocation of 100 refugees from Greece to Portugal. Following its pilot phase, the bilateral relocation scheme would be extended to cover 1,000 refugees in the course of 2019.
The announcement came following a visit of the Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration to Greece. The two countries intend to submit the draft bilateral agreement to the European Commission to receive funding.
According to the statement, persons covered by the agreement will first apply for asylum in Greece, before being interviewed by the Portuguese authorities with a view to being relocated and to receiving refugee status.
Portugal relocated a total of 1,192 asylum seekers from Greece under the Relocation Decisions adopted by the Council of the European Union in September 2015. Under the Decisions, Portugal was required to relocate 1,778 persons from Greece.
For further information:
- ECRE, Relocation: A view from destination countries, May 2018
- AIDA, Country Report Portugal, 2017 Update, March 2018.
- AIDA, Country Report Greece, 2017 Update, March 2018.
*This article was first published by AIDA
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin . You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.