legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

According to Section 11(1) of the Asylum Act, applications must be submitted to any police
authority, either verbally or in writing, within eight days following entry into the country.
Applications lodged beyond this time limit are, unless due justification is produced, rejected as
inadmissible (see “Admissibility procedure” below).
If the application is submitted to another authority than the Aliens and Border Service, it must be
forwarded to the Aliens and Border Service immediately. Upon reception of the application, the
Aliens and Border Service notifies the applicant that he/she has to come to an interview within the
next five days, and inform both the UNHCR office and the Portuguese Refugee Council.
Admissibility procedure
According to Section 13 of the Asylum Act, an application will be considered non-admissible
when:
1. it is obvious that one of the exclusion causes mentioned under Section 3 of the Asylum Act
applies, namely:
– the applicant has performed any acts contrary to Portugal’s fundamental interests and
sovereignty;
– he/she has committed crimes against peace, war crimes or crimes against human kind, as
defined in the international instruments aimed at preventing them;
– he/she has committed felonious common law crimes punishable with more than three years
imprisonment;
– he/she has performed any acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United
Nations.
2. the claim is deemed groundless because it obviously does not meet any criteria defined by the
Geneva Convention or the New York Protocol, because the motives of persecution are not
true, or because it constitutes an abusive usage of the asylum process;
3. the applicant is a national or a habitual resident in a country likely to be considered as a safe
country of origin or as a “safe third country”;
4. the application falls under the situations mentioned in Article 1F of the Geneva Convention;
5. It is submitted beyond the eight-day time limit prescribed in Section 11 without due
justification;
The eight-day rule is generally applied strictly by the authorities, in particular if the applicant
has arrived to Portugal through an airport. Reasons which might justify the submission of the
application beyond the time limit include illness, detention or incorrect legal information. In
practice, only strong and well-founded cases can be accepted after the eight-day limit.
6. the applicant is subject to an expulsion order.
Applicants are interviewed by an officer of the Aliens and Border Service. Interpreters are
provided if necessary. No legal aid is available at this stage. The Aliens and Border Service must
render its decision on admissibility within 20 days following the filing of the application. The
decision is communicated to the UNHCR office and the Portuguese Refugee Council and notified
to the applicant together with, in case of rejection, a period of ten days enabling him/her to
voluntarily leave the country.
Within five days of notification, the applicant may lodge an appeal with the National
Commissioner for Refugees with suspensive effect. The latter may interview the applicant if
necessary. The decision on the appeal must be rendered within 48 hours, but, in practice, it takes
longer, generally up to one to two weeks. In case of a negative decision by the National
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