In a joint hearing before the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, the president of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), Pedro Portugal Gaspar, and the president of the National Council for Migration and Asylum (CNMA), António Vitorino, agreed on the need for Portugal to create regulations for stateless status, which will lead to the granting of nationality, as foreseen in a 2023 law that has never been implemented.

“This system is strong enough to combat fraud,” stated António Vitorino, who was also director of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Convergence of the bills

Recalling that many cases of statelessness corresponded to legal processes of citizenship revocation (ethnic minorities, for example) or in countries that “have vulnerable and fragile civil registration systems,” António Vitorino stressed that in Portugal the processes concern “individual situations that require their own specific procedure.”

“There is a great convergence of these four bills” that are under discussion, presented by Livre, PSD, PS, and BE, and “all seem extremely adequate to protect this regulatory gap,” he added.

The president of AIMA praised the “parliamentary consensus” on several measures of the bills, including the suspensive effect of appeals and the “use of some existing figures” in other bills to accelerate procedures.

"AIMA will be here to develop the application of the legal regime approved by the members of parliament," said Pedro Portugal Gaspar, emphasising that the organisation has "reduced the backlog" and increased the "regularisation of the large documentary backlog," so there will be conditions to implement the regulation.

"There is always a potential for fraud in all systems, but in coordination with other entities, with deadlines that seem appropriate to me and with relative room for decision-making on procedures, AIMA will not be alarmed," he added.

All parties agreed in January of this year to draft regulations on statelessness in Portugal, except Chega, which accused the PSD of siding with the left.

The bills from the PSD, PS, BE, and Livre provide a path to statelessness for a citizen who lacks nationality, subject to an assessment of each applicant's situation and in compliance with international agreements.

Statute approved

The statute was approved in 2023, but the legislation was not regulated due to the fall of the then-government, and only now has the main party supporting the PSD/CDS government promoted a new debate, following the approval of legislation on nationality, entry of foreigners, return, and the creation of the Foreigners and Borders Unit.

Paulo Muacho (Livre) recalled that "statelessness represents the deprivation of one of the most basic human rights," which is "the right to a nationality," and therefore it is up to parliament to regulate it.

António Rodrigues (PSD) said he believes that parliament will find a quick solution for something that has lacked regulation for some time, and argued that the bills under discussion, "with the exception of one," "could almost replace each other, almost except for the commas," emphasising that the deadlines foreseen are "negotiable and open to consensus."

Isabel Moreira (PS) stressed that this was a "regime that had remained to be implemented," rejected the notion that the bill constitutes "a gateway for migration," and thanked the interventions, which "solidified the certainty that it is appropriate" to move forward with the regulation.

The only dissenting voice came from Chega, with Ricardo Reis pointing to the risk of fraud if the stateless person applicant disposes of original documents and there are problems in the records of the countries of origin.