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The Portuguese government has decided it would be willing to pay 8.4 million euros to the European Commission in return for refusing to accept a contingent of 420 asylum seekers, which it would have been asked to accept under the new EU 'solidarity' mechanism. However, the payments will not start until June, and the European Commission is currently reassessing its decision.

News sources in Portugal, including SIC Noticias, TPN and Observador, are reporting that the Portuguese government has agreed to pay 8.4 million euros to the European Commission because it is unable to accommodate 420 asylum seekers it had been asked to accept, without disrupting the Portuguese system. The money would be put towards a so-called solidarity fund of 420 million euros, which is intended to help member states share responsibility.

Payments for this agreement will begin in June, reported TPN, and will be put towards a so-called solidarity reserve, which will then be used to support other countries in the bloc that are facing "immigration pressure." According to a European Council press release, states can choose between three types of solidarity under the terms of the pact. Either they can agree to relocations, or they can offer financial contributions, or propose alternative solidarity measures.

File photo used as illustration: Current EU assessments indicate that Portugal should accept two percent of the 21,009 asylum seekers that are due to be redistributed in 2026 | Photo: Jorge Mantilla / Nur Photo / picture alliance

The solidarity agreement is part of the new EU Pact on Asylum and Migration, which is due to be implemented over the course of this year. In December 2025, the 27 EU member states agreed to redistribute a total of 21,009 asylum seekers throughout 2026, reported TPN. As part of that mechanism, Portugal was expected to take two percent, or 420 people.

Beneficiaries and exceptions

The pact sets out that Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain are all states under migratory pressure, and they will be the prime beneficiaries of the solidarity measures. Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia and Poland have also been identified as facing "a significant migratory situation due to the cumulative migratory pressure of the previous years." As such, stated the press release, these member states have indicated their wish "to see their solidarity contributions for the first solidarity pool fully or partially reduced." They have also had their pledges adjusted in light of the "significant migratory situation."

Portuguese officials have contested the EU's calculations and asked for a reassessment | Photo: Armando Franca / AP Photo / picture alliance

Germany was also relieved of having to make contributions during the first year, due to the fact that it already hosts more than one million refugees and asylum seekers, and has been offering sanctuary to significant communities for at least a decade.

However, Portuguese officials contested the calculations made in Brussels and asked the European Commission to reconsider its decision. The Commission is now evaluating Portugal’s planned contributions to the mechanism, reported Observador.

Roll-out scheduled for June 2026

In a press release on December 12, the European Council of the European Union explained that the solidarity pool planned for 2026 is "one of the main elements of the EU’s pact on Migration and Asylum."

The hope is to make the European asylum system more effective. The pact "contains clear rules on responsibility for processing asylum applications." It also aims to reduce "illegal entry" and hopes to "relieve the burden on those countries where most migrants arrive," the press release states.

Although Portugal is also a southern Mediterranean state, its geographical position, with the majority of its coastline facing west into the Atlantic, means that it hasn’t yet experienced established maritime smuggling routes, like its neighbor Spain, or countries further east in the Mediterranean basin, like Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

Migrants in Portugal

Latest estimates suggest that Portugal hosts more than a million foreign residents, many of whom have come from former Portuguese colonies like Angola, Zambia or Brazil. These are joined by migrant workers from countries across South Asia, who often end up getting work in the agricultural industry.

File photo used as illustration: Just under 10 percent of Portugal's population are migrants but migrant workers are key to the economy. Most of them don't arrive by sea, since much of the Portuguese coast faces west on to the Atlantic ocean | Photo: Jorge Castellanos/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire / picture alliance

According to the Portuguese barometer on immigration, published in January 2025, migrants make up about 9.8 percent of the total population and contribute heavily to the country’s economy.

Most migrants work in the construction, agriculture and service sectors. Migrants made up just under 15 percent of the labor market, which is slightly higher than the EU average. Of that figure, 2.7 percent came from other EU member states and about 11.6 percent came from third countries. The data is from 2023, although it was contained within a summary published on December 31, 2025, by the Prague Process.

In 2024 (the latest available information), according to the Asylum Information Database AIDA, a total of 2,634 people applied for protection in Portugal. A total of 674 decisions were made and there were still 556 pending at the end of the year. Just nine people were granted refugee status or subsidiary protection, meaning that a total of 665 people were rejected.

Refugees and asylum seekers

However, in 2025, according to UN Refugee Agency UNHCR data, Portugal hosted more than 66,541 refugees, asylum seekers or IDPs. This included more than 56,700 Ukrainians, who, as in the rest of the EU, benefit from a special protection status, which allows them to be treated as refugees, but with the possibility to come and go from their home country as often as they need to. The EU special protection granted provides residence, access to healthcare, education, social protection and the labor market.

The majority of applicants came from Senegal, the Gambia, Colombia, Angola and Afghanistan. There were also applicants from Venezuela, Israel, Morocco, Guinea and China. This meant that the protection rate in first instance was just one percent on average, noted the Portuguese Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).

File photo used as illustration: Portugal has a very low acceptance rate for offering protection or asylum to applicants | Photo: Jorge Mantilla / Nur Photo / picture alliance

In terms of appeals, around 459 people appealed their decision in 2024, and about 32 percent of these appeals were successful, in that the applicants were granted some form of protection after deliberation in court.

Immigration barometer

The Portuguese Immigration Barometer, published in January 2025, found that slightly more than half of respondents (51 percent) perceived migration as a threat to Portuguese culture and public security.

Most respondents to the survey also perceived there to be more migrants than there actually are in Portugal. In fact, the proportion of migrants to the native-born population is lower than that in 17 other countries in the European Union.

In a debate on the EU YouTube channel "EU Debates" in January 2025, a spokesperson for the Commission reminded journalists that participating in the solidarity mechanism is "mandatory," irrespective of the attitudes or policies a country or government might hold towards integrating migrants, asylum seekers and refugees into their country.