Immigrant requests in Portugal to return to Brazil break record in 2022

Requests to support the voluntary return of immigrants to Portugal broke records in 2022, with 1,051 subscribers, most of them Brazilians, with 913 registrations, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) head of mission in Lisbon said on Friday.

“The numbers give a record number of subscribers to the program [ARVoRe, Apoio ao Retorno Voluntário e à Reintegração de imigrantes no país de origem]. In 2022, we had 1,051 subscribers and out of the total return we are talking about 394 people,” Vasco Malta said in statements to Lusa.

“For Brazil in particular, there were 913 registrations, which is also a very significant record, and 350 people returned to Brazil,” the person in charge said in the same year.

Thus, the Brazilian community is the most representative in terms of return requests, but Vasco Malta also highlighted the “presence of Timor-Leste, whose migration flow in 2022 was significant” and, according to his expectations, will continue to grow. be in 2023.

For Vasco Malta, this could mean that the Brazilians, who make up the largest immigrant community in Portugal, are more aware of and using the program more, but it could also mean, according to information collected by IOM, that “there are actually a number of factors”, namely unemployment, difficulties in accessing the labor market and housing, as well as obtaining a residence permit, which contributed to an increase in the number of applications.

According to the official, not only the number of applications has increased, but also “surprisingly” cases of people who are extremely vulnerable, living on the street or victims of domestic violence.

“What I would also highlight in 2022 (…) is the number of vulnerable cases, that is, we are talking about a very significant number of people who have come down to us in 2022, in the last line – situations of homelessness, domestic violence, human trafficking,” he said.

For an official in 2022, “an anomalous number of situations of extreme vulnerability that have always happened over the years, but never at such a high level.”

And, although there are no statistics on nationalities in these cases, the head of the IOM in Portugal calculated that, since Brazilian citizenship will take up almost 90% of what is a return project in 2022, “inevitably there will be cases of extreme vulnerability among Brazilian citizens.”

Last year alone, the number of victims of human trafficking networks who were referred to IOM for support in terms of returning to their country was about 13, Vasco Malta said. While not a very significant figure, it is, according to the official, “still a very significant figure.”

Subsequently, Vasco Malta explained to Luza that the number of cases of victims of trafficking networks referred to IOM for support was 11.

“What I know is that in the context of human trafficking, we have seen many cases, that is, not only more organized networks, but situations of human trafficking where there is not the complexity of the networks that we are used to. seeing.”

Based on IOM data, Vasco Malta emphasized that of the immigrants who ask to return, more than 30% do so in the first year of emigration to Portugal, another 37% return in the second year of their stay in Portugal and more than 30%. apply in the past for more than two years as an immigrant in the country.

For Vasco Malta, this means that “clearly” there is “a decision to migrate to Portugal that is not informed, prepared and prepared by people in detail, leads to greater vulnerability from the very beginning.”

Regarding the fact that this trip was not well prepared, in addition to other factors, the person in charge of IOM believes that “one of them”, based on the perception of the monitoring visit to Brazil last September, “is that there are people who resort to social networks, informal networks and Youtube videos, create an image of Portugal that does not correspond to reality.”

For this reason, Vasco Malta advised anyone who wants to emigrate to “find out what is the average salary in Portugal, whether you can work in the areas where you want to work or not, the average cost of living in cities, housing, food, prices for energy.”

Regarding the increase in Timorese inquiries, the IOM spokesman explained that many of those who come to Portugal see the country as a “transit point” and the UK as their final destination.

But with Brexit, the United Kingdom’s exit process from the European Union, “the difficulties of entering this country have increased even for those who had Portuguese citizenship and stayed in Portugal,” Vasco Malta explained.

In addition, the Timorese community in Portugal has also increased due to the socio-economic conditions in Timor-Leste, he added, and there were those who were seduced by a number of companies that did not follow through with the proposals.

All this meant that “the number of Timor-Leste subscribers to the return project has increased dramatically between 2022 and 2023” and the organization is “working to ensure that they can return regularly, humanely and in an orderly manner” to their country.

The IOM ARVORe (Support for Voluntary Return and Reintegration) program is co-funded by the Government of Portugal through the Aliens Border Guard and the European Union Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

In 2021, the program had 288 registered subscribers, of which 219 were Brazilian immigrants, and a total of 113 returned to their country of origin, of which 93 were Brazilians.