Portugal is second in the EU for Schengen return alerts relative to population and economy. 68,000 have temporary protection
The European Commission has published its annual report on asylum and migration for the period from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Adjusted for population and economy, Portugal ranks second in the European Union for the number of cases in which a check on a foreign national turned up an order to leave the country recorded in the Schengen Information System (SIS). Yet by the report's methodology, Portugal is not under migratory pressure (Notícias ao Minuto).
SIS is a database shared by the Schengen countries. Orders to leave and entry bans are recorded in it, and border guards and police see them whenever they check someone's documents.
In Portugal, orders to leave were most often issued to citizens of Brazil, India and Angola. Across the EU, countries issued 463,000 such orders over the year, 5% fewer than the year before. A total of 142,000 people left or were deported, 11% more than a year earlier, so the share of decisions carried out rose from 26% to 31%. More than 60% of these people left of their own accord.
In June 2026, 68,310 people in Portugal held temporary protection, most of them refugees from Ukraine. They account for more than half of everyone housed in the state reception system for asylum seekers, which, the Commission notes, now has more places (Dinheiro Vivo).
The report also criticises Portugal: like seven other countries, it has still not set up an independent body to monitor whether people's rights are respected at the border, both during checks and when they apply for asylum there.
