Lusa
Many of the citizens are Nigerian medical students who left Ukraine when the war started and restarted their studies in Portugal.
A group of foreign citizens who fled the war in Ukraine and received temporary protection in Portugal are now at risk of losing that status. According to the report, since August, the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) has sent notifications to several of these people, justifying the decision with the alleged lack of proof of residence “permanent legal in Ukraine” and the possibility of returning safely to their country of origin.
Among those affected are dozens of Nigerian medical students who, after leaving Ukraine in 2022, restarted their studies in Portugal. The cancellation of temporary protection could force them to leave the country and waste their years of studies in Portugal.
In response, those targeted formed the “Collective of Displaced Non-Ukrainian Residents of Ukraine” and sent a letter to the Assembly of the Republic, denouncing the measure as “legally and morally indefensible”. They argue that there was no legal change to revoke the right to protection granted in 2022 and recall that, at the time, it was enough to have a “temporary residence permit” in Ukraine to be eligible, a criterion that continues to be published on the “SEF for Ukraine” portal.
In the letter, the signatories describe themselves as “law-abiding residents” and integrated into Portuguese society, highlighting that the cancellation of the status is “unfair and inhumane”, in addition to contradicting the humanitarian spirit that Portugal demonstrated at the beginning of the war.
Three students from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon told Público the I’m afraid of losing everything again. After escaping the Russian invasion, they rebuilt their lives in Portugal, where they resumed their studies and benefited from social support equivalent to that of national citizens. The institution confirms that it has 39 students in this situation and is concerned about the violation of the principle of equal access to higher education.
The students, who have not seen their families for seven years, say they feel defrauded and disillusioned with the Portuguese State. “Our legitimate expectations, based on Portugal’s own laws, were completely destroyed”, laments one of them.
