The first group of 24 refugees arrives in Portugal today under the relocation process approved in September at the European Council.
The Refugee Support Platform, within the scope of its PAR Families program, forwards two families – a total of seven people, three of whom are children – to two of the host institutions that are part of this platform, one in Setúbal (Palmela Islamic Foundation) and another in Ferreira do Zêzere (Maria Dias Ferreira Foundation).
Refugees arriving in Portugal today include people who fled Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, Sudan and Tunisia. Among them are three children.
These are the first of the 4500 refugees that Portugal has pledged to host as part of the commitment made by the European Union at the end of September.
The Refugee Relocation Program in the European Union foresees that 160 refugees, who are now in centers in Greece and Italy, will be hosted in the EU.
But the latest data made available by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees show that just over 200 have already been received in other countries.
According to UNHCR, between January and November this year, 1,5 million people arrived illegally in the EU, of which nearly 80% are able to request asylum and receive refugee status. More than half arrived in Greece (742 thousand) and Italy (159 thousand).
Among the entities involved in welcoming in Portugal are the Lisbon City Council, the Portuguese Council for Refugees, the High Commission for Migration, the Refugee Support Platform, the Portuguese Red Cross, the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas, the Jesuit Service to Refugees and the Islamic Foundation of Lisbon.
110 municipalities will participate in the operation as a whole, recalled Deputy Minister Eduardo Cabrita, who, together with the Minister of Internal Affairs Constança Urbano, received the first group to arrive this morning at Lisbon Airport».
The financing of the operation will be covered by funds allocated by Brussels to the Portuguese State, which will then distribute them to entities that have established protocols for this purpose with the Foreigners and Borders Service, including the União das Misericórdias Portuguesas.
"After so long waiting and although still far from the desired numbers and the installed capacity in our country for the reception and integration of refugees, this is good news that, we hope, will allow new relocations to happen soon", stresses the PAIR, in a press release.
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