Portugal welcomes 33 unaccompanied refugee children and youth – Observer
Normal Portugal this week 37 refugees, mostly unaccompanied children and young people, from the refugee camps of Greece, indicated this Friday the Government.
A joint statement from the offices of the Ministries of State and Presidency, Internal Administration and Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, states that, of the 37 refugees who arrived in Portugal this week, 33 are unaccompanied children and youth from the refugee camps in Greece.
These children and young people were taken in under the Voluntary Relocation Program.
According to the Government, the remaining four refugees are hosted under the National Resettlement Program of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The statement states that the 33 unaccompanied children and young people are natives of Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria and will be hosted in Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Leiria and Lisbon, while the four adults are of Syrian nationality, hail from Egypt, and are hosted in the North of the country.
Under the Resettlement Program, Portugal already known 927 people from Egypt and Turkey with different nationalities (from Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia), according to the executive.
Recognizing the special vulnerability of unaccompanied foreign children and young people, the Portuguese government responded to the call of the Greek government and the European Commission, in March 2020, for the relocation of around 500 children and young people who were in Greece”, grab the communicated.
With the arrival of this group of 33, 199 children and young people have already been welcomed in the country., in specialized shelters throughout the country.
The Government cites data from the European Commission from October this year that showed that Portugal is the third Member State that has hosted more unaccompanied minors, after France and Germany.
The Government also takes stock of the refugees welcomed in Portugal, noting that it welcomed 262 people in the context of emergencies arising from rescues in the Mediterranean.
According to the executive, Portugal was the sixth European country that received more refugees under the EU Relocation Program, receiving 1,550 refugees from Greece and Italy between December 2015 and April 2018, which were hosted by 97 municipalities.
Under the bilateral agreement between Portugal and Greece, 100 beneficiaries / applicants for international protection arrived in the country, fulfilling the commitment made between the two governments in March 2019.
Portugal also frequents 142 asylum seekers under the agreement between the EU and Turkey, between June 2016 and December 2017.