The approval this week of RASI 2025 – the annual internal security report – shows that 23,134 immigrants in Portugal ‘illegally’ were notified to leave the country last year. How many of them have complied is the big question.
Says the document approved by the Superior Council of Internal Security: “A total of 23,134 notices were issued requiring individuals to leave the country voluntarily; in addition, 298 administrative expulsion proceedings were initiated and 91 decisions were handed down”.
Compared to the RASI 2024, the number of notices skyrocketed. In 2024, only 444 immigrants were issued with notices to leave the country.
As reports stress, this massive increase in notifications comes “even before the law that allows the acceleration of expulsion of immigrants in an irregular situation comes into effect.”
This law entered parliament on March 19, and is still due to be fully debated.
Meantime, the RASI also held some information on immigrants who did leave the country in 2025 (252 – 70 following administrative expulsion orders, 22 as part of procedures to escort them to the border, and 160 in compliance with a court order imposing expulsion as an additional penalty.)
When it comes to border controls, these refused entry to 2,140 people – all of them arriving in Portugal by plane. Reasons given were ‘lack of valid documentation proving the reasons for visiting, and conditions of stay (1,197), and the lack of a visa or valid residency document (400). The majority of people turned away in these situations were Brazilians, and citizens from Argentina.
The report adds that police carried out 4,627 ‘actions of inspection’ on immigrants resident in this country – over 3,500 more than were carried out in 2024. The inspections were made in the hotel and catering sector, and in agricultural explorations.
During these inspections, the authorities identified 1,006 people in an irregular situation (855 more than in 2024), out of a total of 85,840 people identified. The majority of people identified as being in an irregular situation were found during operations carried out in public spaces.
As to crimes relating to illegal immigration, these also increased, according to the report which covers six types of crime: aiding illegal immigration, marriages of convenience, violation of entry prohibitions, association with illegal immigration and hiring of illegal labour. 2025 saw a 251.3% increase in these crimes, involving 1,205 cases. The type of crime that increased the most, explains SIC Notícias, was ‘marriages of convenience’, which went from 12 (in the 2024 RASI) to 60 in 2025 – an increase of 400%.
Source material: LUSA
