Portugal’s first refugees as part of the new intake as agreed with Brussels will start arriving next week, minister for regional development Poiares Maduro has revealed. Stressing that now is not the time for Portuguese families to start opening their homes to incoming families, as “bringing refugees involves knowing who these people are”, Poiares Maduro explained the first 30 will be taken from camps in Italy.
They will be families, he added, and most likely Syrians.
Económico website writes that “the government still does not know exactly who these refugees are who will be arriving during the first two weeks of October”, but as soon as it does, Poiares Maduro claims it “will be able to identify where they will be lodged and in which part of the country”.
As newspapers have been explaining, this is the first step in a process that will see Portugal opening its doors to around 4,600 refugees within the next two years.
