Porto's Centre for Foreigners Facing Removal Gains 80 Beds, Lifting National Capacity to 171 Places
A new 80-bed wing at Porto's Santo António centre brings Portugal to 171 places for people facing removal or refused entry, the interior minister says. Who can be held there, for how long, and what rights they have under the Foreigners Act.
Portugal now has 171 places for holding foreign nationals who face removal or have been refused entry, the Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, said on Monday after opening a new modular wing with 80 beds at the Centro de Instalação Temporária (Temporary Installation Centre, CIT) in Porto's Unidade Habitacional de Santo António (Santo António Housing Unit). According to Lusa, he said the total, counting facilities in Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Beja, is above the reference figure of 102 places set for Portugal at European level under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which began to apply in June.
Lusa reported that the Porto unit now has 114 places, about two thirds of the national total. In a note to newsrooms, the PSP (Public Security Police) put the investment at about one million euros and said the extension should improve conditions for reception, hygiene, clinical assessment and security. The minister spoke only during the ceremony and took no questions.
Why the extra places matter
The opening follows weeks of pressure on the system. On 15 October RTP reported that ten people awaiting removal were being held in PSP station cells because the centres were full, and that the PSP had told a Lisbon court it could not guarantee their legal rights there. In September, the head of the PSP's foreigners and borders unit told Lusa that Portugal had about 130 places and aimed for 306 in the second half of 2027. The government has not published a breakdown of the 171 places by site.
Who can be held, and for how long
The centres hold people in immigration cases, not people serving criminal sentences. Under the Lei de Estrangeiros (Foreigners Act, Law 23/2007), they hold two groups of people:
- foreign nationals detained for entering or staying in Portugal irregularly, while a coercive removal case runs (Article 146);
- people refused entry at an airport or port who cannot be put back on a flight within 48 hours (Article 38).
The law says a removal case is not opened, or may be suspended, against anyone holding a valid residence permit or another document that allows them to stay legally. A person whose asylum application is accepted waits for the decision in freedom. Anyone detained for irregular stay must be brought before a judge within 48 hours, and the judge decides whether they go to a centre. Under the Act as it stands, last amended by Law 62/2026 of 10 September, a stay may last only as long as strictly needed, up to 180 days, extendable once by the same period if the person does not cooperate or another country delays travel documents.
Rights inside the centres
Article 146-A gives detainees the right to contact their lawyer in private and, on request, their family and their consulate, to urgent health care, and to a written copy of the centre's rules and their rights. Families must be housed separately with privacy, and children must have leisure activities and, for longer stays, schooling. People refused entry also have a right to an interpreter, a doctor where needed, and a lawyer, with legal aid on request (Article 40). The Ombudsman's Mecanismo Nacional de Prevenção (National Prevention Mechanism) visits these places unannounced; in its 2025 report it found eight people sharing a 16 square metre container at Santo António.
What comes next
EU rules are moving toward longer detention. The new EU return regulation, approved by member states on 1 October, allows up to 12 months, or 24 in some cases, but most of it applies only 12 months after it enters into force. Until then, Portugal's 180-day limit stands. Portugal also records far fewer returns than orders to leave: 330 returns against 11,190 orders in the second quarter, Eurostat figures show.
