António Costa shared the data at the opening of the plenary session of the Standing Committee of the Assembly of the Republic, in a debate on the agenda of the next European Council, which takes place on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.

“As history has shown us, whoever has an external border will one day always be at the forefront of a wave of refugees. Portugal significantly streamlined all refugee recognition procedures. As of Monday (21 March), we have 17,504 refugees in Portugal, 6,200 of which are minors”.

On this point regarding minors, António Costa said that “more than 600 are already registered and attending public schools”.

At the opening of the debate, the prime minister once again condemned the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, expressed the willingness of Portugal to support the Kyiv regime.