The requests for a hearing in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, two from the Left Block and one from the PSD party, were unanimously approved.
On the 29 of September, the BE announced that it wanted to hear, “as a matter of urgency”, Ministers Eduardo Cabrita and Mariana Vieira da Silva on the situation of refugees arriving in Portugal.

In their request for a hearing with the minister of the interior, the politicians expressed concern about the lack of vacancies in the Temporary Installation Centres (CIT), which oblige the holding of refugees arriving in the country in prison and military establishments.

In the request for the presence in parliament of the Minister of State and Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, the BE said that Portugal had committed itself to “receive 1,100 refugees from Turkey and Egypt,” but only “186 people arrived from Turkey and 220 people from Egypt,” adding that of the 1,000 people from Greece that the country had offered to receive, “no one has arrived yet.”

In its application, the PSD party wants Eduardo Cabrita to clarify what measures the government is taking to prevent further landings of migrants on the Algarve coast and what kind of re-housing is planned for those already on national territory in order to avoid “sporadic escapes such as those that have occurred”.

On 15 February, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva confirmed that Portugal had expressed its willingness to receive up to 100 migrants from the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos after the fire that destroyed the camp’s infrastructure.

On 11 September, the Secretary of State for Integration and Migration said that Portugal was prepared to receive 28 minors from the island of Lesbos and other Greek localities later this month, which would be divided across different cities.

In parallel, under a bilateral agreement between Portugal and Greece, the Portuguese authorities undertook to speed up the already planned transfer of the first 100 people.

In total, the agreement provides for the reception of up to 1 000 people in refugee camps in Greece and has been given the “green light” by the European Commission, with the situation being monitored by the International Organisation for Migration.