Background information

Council of Ministers Resolution 28/2025 authorises the Public Security Police to take on multiannual charges and to incur expenditure on the acquisition of a public works contract for the construction of two new temporary installation centres.

This is in line with the Action Plan for Migration, issued by the Portuguese Government in June 2024, following the Pact on Migration and Asylum, approved by European Parliament and the Council in 2024. The government also proposed to the Portuguese Parliament the creation of the National Foreigners and Borders Unit within the Public Security Police (PSP), responsible for controlling air borders, supervising the entry and stay of foreign citizens in national territory, and carrying out coercive removal procedures for citizens who are staying illegally.

In the current context, the Portuguese government has set the objective of complying with the new European Union rules on verifying the identity of third-country nationals subject to screening, as well as any health and safety risks, which are established quickly, and that all third-country nationals who enter the EU without fulfilling the entry conditions are quickly referred to the correct applicable procedure.

Content of measure

This Resolution of the Council of Ministers provides for the construction of new temporary installlation centres (“CITs”), while also ensuring the capacity of existing spaces equivalent to temporary installation centres (“EECITs”).

To this end, the government has decided to centralise the management and operation of these centres at national level in the Public Security Police (PSP). The centres are to be used for the reception and residence of third-country nationals subject to the screening procedure, as well as the procedure for removal from national territory.

A planned investment aims to build two new CITs by 30 June 2026, with a capacity for 300 people, using the funding provided in the investment RE-C02-i02 of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

The Council of Ministers thus authorised the PSP to incur expenditure on the acquisition of a public works contract for the construction of two new temporary installation centres and related services. The budgetary procedure may not exceed the following amounts for each financial year, to which VAT shall be added at the legal rate in force:

• 2025 - € 10,000,000.00;
• 2026 - € 20,000,000.00.

Investments are also planned to ensure the upgrading and, where applicable, expansion of the EECITs located at the following international airports: Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada.

The current caretaker government has presented, in early April 2025, a series of measures to the National Council for Migration and Asylum to speed up the deportation of immigrants who have no right to stay in the country. One of them is to abolish the redundant procedural stage of the first notification for voluntary departure from national territory, which will reduce the time it takes to leave the country by around ten days. Another proposal is to shorten the time limits for appeals against the final decision to return.

Use of measure

No information is yet available on the use of the measure.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Does not apply to businesses	Migrants or refugees

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National Recovery and Resilience Facility

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement as case not in social partner domain	No involvement as case not in social partner domain
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

No involvement of social partners.

Views and reactions

No reactions of social partners.

Sources

• 17 February 2025: Resolução do Conselho de Ministros 28/202 (files.diariodarepublica.pt)
• 30 March 2025: Governo apresenta medidas para acelerar deportação de imigrantes em situação irregula (www.dn.pt)