"I would say we have tens of thousands of people living illegally in the country," João Ribeiro, deputy national director of the PSP and head of the National Immigrants and Borders Unit (UNEF), told Lusa.

The official admitted that, for the most part, these will be straightforward cases, "perhaps due to inexperience, perhaps due to inaction, considering the existing legal framework, or because they didn't submit documents, or because they should have provided proof of certain situations and didn't."

"The point is that we now have a more coherent framework in terms of regulated migration," he said.

In an interview with Lusa news agency, João Ribeiro stated that some of the immigrants had expressed their interest (an instrument that was abolished in June 2024 and allowed foreign citizens who wanted to live in the country to apply for a residence permit), but others arrived without this instrument and without having completed any registration.

"They never submitted any documents. If they didn't submit the documents when they were due, they are in an irregular situation," he said, noting that the immigrants in this situation are primarily Brazilians and from the Indian subcontinent, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Noting that this number is related to "the excessive volume of cases that AIMA has had to deal with, which represents great challenges" for the PSP, João Ribeiro emphasized that the new PSP unit's "main concern" is these irregular immigrants and those currently entering Portugal, who pose a "great risk" to the country and the Schengen area.

Airports

In this regard, he added that "one of the PSP's recent concerns" is related to the recent networks detected at airports.

"Since the expressions of interest ended, [this type of network] is seen as a simpler way" to try to enter the country, he said, arguing that this approach needs to be "looked at more closely."

The PSP has detected many fake contracts at airports, with non-existent companies, by "citizens from different CPLP [Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries] countries who want to come to Portugal to work," he said.

Some of them have even "confessed to paying to obtain these documents," and many of them may even be "using Portugal as a gateway to Europe."

He maintained that the focus will be on anticipating risk scenarios.

He explained that there have been "meetings and contacts with the immigration and border police forces of other countries, particularly those in the CPLP," with the aim of strengthening air borders in those states that pose a risk to Portugal's borders.

He also mentioned that several training courses were held in several CPLP countries last month to train local border police in detecting risk situations that pose migratory pressure toward Portugal. The official also emphasised that immigrants need not fear the National Foreigners and Borders Unit, as Portugal wants "regulated, yet humane migration." "There are migration routes that attempt to exploit the quality of the CPLP country to come to Portugal," he said.