On Monday (3 June), the Government announced 41 measures – ranging from strengthening the Agency for Migration and Asylum Integration (AIMA) to the end of the Expression of Interest procedure.

Here is the full list of the new immigration program as outlined by the government.

What measures did the Government announce?

- Terminate the Expressions of Interest procedure;

- Strengthen response and processing capacity at Consular Posts;

- Prioritise entry channels for family reunification, young students and qualified professionals;

- Create a Mission Structure to resolve the 400+ thousand pending processes;

- Urgently intervene in existing border control infrastructures, IT systems and databases;

- Catch up on the delay in implementing new border control systems;

- Mitigate the high levels of congestion and delays that occur at the border crossings of Lisbon and Faro airports;

- Strengthen the operational framework of the CPLP Mobility Agreement;

- Confirm and execute resettlement and relocation commitments for beneficiaries and applicants for international protection;

- Develop and execute the National Plan for the Implementation of the European Union's Migration and Asylum Pact;

- Increase the capacity of Spaces Equivalent to Temporary Installation Centres (EECITs);

- Build new Temporary Installation Centres (CIT), ensuring legal and civil society support;

- Establish procedural speed mechanisms to be applied in judicial appeals processes, in terms of immigration and asylum;

- Ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the return system, unifying these skills across police forces;

- Create a multi-force inspection team to combat abuses (human trafficking, illegal immigration, labour exploitation and human rights violations);

- Audit linguistic assessment processes for obtaining Portuguese nationality;

- Establish a human capital attraction system aligned with the country’s needs;

- Improve the process of recognising qualifications and competencies;

- Promote professional training of foreign citizens;

- Carry out a Labour Needs Survey, aligning the supply and demand for foreign workers and their scheduled reception;

- Promote the attraction and attendance of foreign students in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions;

- Increase places for asylum seekers and refugees in reception centres;

- Increase the capacity of specialised Residential Units for emergency reception of unaccompanied minors;

- Increase temporary and urgent accommodation capacity for immigrants, refugees and beneficiaries of international protection;

- Promote the professional integration of immigrants into the national labour market;

- Create Municipal/Intermunicipal Emergency Reception Centres for immigrants, in cooperation with Municipalities;

- Implement integration projects in very critical neighbourhoods under municipal coordination;

- Strengthen supply, coverage and frequency of teaching Portuguese as a Non-Mother Language (PLNM);

- Provide multilingual materials and guidance, including in functional Portuguese;

- Simplify the process for granting equivalences in basic education;

- Promote and manage immigrants’ access to the National Health Service;

- Create instruments for channelling private capital for social investment in immigrant integration projects;

- Create the Foreigners and Borders Unit at PSP;

- Restructuring of AIMA's competencies and internal organisation;

- Strengthen AIMA's human and technological resources, creating an incentive for productivity and performance;

- Transfer the responsibility for in-person service of requests for renewal of residence permits from the IRN to AIMA;

- Expansion of the in-person service available for immigrant citizens to request their sectoral identifiers (NIF, NISS, NNU);

- Restore the Migration Observatory as a State body to inform public policy;

- Redefine and automate the Council for Migration and Asylum, as an advisory body to the Government;

- Strengthen financial support for immigrant and civil society associations operating in the sector