Portugal will pay more than €8 million to avoid accepting hundreds of asylum seekers under the European Union’s new migration pact, opting to make what are described as solidarity payments rather than relocate migrants from other member states.
The decision, first reported by Portuguese news outlet Expresso on Monday, commits Portugal to paying €8.44 million as part of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum. The contribution covers the year 2026 and replaces the relocation of approximately 420 asylum seekers from countries facing higher migratory pressure, including Italy, Spain, Greece, and Cyprus.
Under the EU Council’s decision, Portugal was allocated around 2 percent of the annual solidarity reserve, which is set at 21,000 people. This would have required the country to accept about 420 asylum seekers. Instead, the government chose to pay a fixed amount of €20,000 per person it declined to receive.
Portugal initially voted against the proposal for the redistribution of asylum seekers, arguing that the criteria used by the European Commission did not reflect national realities. In the final vote on the pact, Portugal abstained but remained bound by the obligation to contribute under the mandatory solidarity mechanism.
Portugal’s decision to pay up deviates from countries such as Hungary and Slovakia, which remain fully opposed to acknowledging the pact and now risk infringement proceedings by the European Commission.
Last month, Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok travelled to Brussels, telling press he had a firm mandate to reject the pact.
“We reject illegal migration, we reject mandatory relocations, we promote border protection, and we insist on the sovereign right to decide who will live on our territory. I reject accepting people we know nothing about, who do not recognize our traditions or values, and who may pose a security risk to Slovakia,” Eštok said at the time.
The new government in Czechia, led by Andrej Babiš, has also vowed to reject the pact.
Portugal’s Minister for the Presidency António Leitão Amaro said in December that the country had explained its position to Brussels. “We explained to the Commission that we couldn’t, but we weren’t the only ones; many countries also opted for the financial compensation method,” he said at a press conference in Lisbon on Dec. 19.
Leitão Amaro also argued that Portugal is itself under migratory pressure and that the European Commission relied on outdated data that did not reflect what he described as the country’s “new migratory reality.” While the Commission has agreed to reassess Portugal’s situation, the financial commitment remains in place until any revision is made.
The Migration and Asylum Pact is due to enter into force on June 12, 2026.
In November, the European Commission announced that several EU countries would be eligible to reduce their financial or relocation contributions under the bloc’s new Migration and Asylum Pact.
In its first Annual Migration Management Cycle report, Brussels said Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Croatia, Austria, and Poland could apply for full or partial deductions from their required solidarity contributions in 2026, citing “cumulative migratory pressures over the last five years.”
Greece, Cyprus, Spain, and Italy were formally identified as being under “migratory pressure” due to high numbers of irregular arrivals, while Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and several others were listed as “at risk.”
