Portugal's misleading immigration claims fact-checked

euronews (in English)

The issue of immigration is a prime target for misinformation in countries across Europe, and Portugal is no exception. EuroVerify takes a look at some of the claims by the Portuguese far right.

Transcript

00:00Portugal has been swamped by misleading immigration claims.

00:09The topic of immigration is a prime target for misinformation in countries across Europe,

00:14and Portugal is no exception. Andre Ventura, leader of the far-right Chega party,

00:19recently claimed that 20% of Portugal's current prisoners are foreigners,

00:23making a clear link between immigration and crime levels. At a recent demonstration in Porto,

00:28Ventura said that crime in the city has increased by 9% in the past year,

00:33and that 30% of arrests made in general are foreigners.

00:37We know that 20% of the current prison population are also foreigners, the Chega leader added.

00:42Let's see what the official figures say. An annual report by Portugal's Internal Security

00:46Agency for the year 2023 shows that the vast majority of the country's prisoners are Portuguese,

00:5283.3%. Foreigners account for 16.7% of inmates, meanwhile.

00:58Additionally, of the roughly 46,000 people receiving criminal sentences identified by

01:03the security agency, only 11.1% were from a country outside Portugal.

01:08On a separate occasion in the country's parliament, Ventura said that 344 women were

01:13raped in Portugal up to September, surpassing last year's figures. He said that many of these

01:19offences were committed by immigrants, and accused the government of looking the other way.

01:23Numbers from Portugal's Directorate General of Prison Services show that 131 people were

01:28serving prison sentences for rape as of 31 December 2023. Of those, 104 were Portuguese

01:35nationals and 27 were foreigners. That puts the percentage of rapes committed by immigrants at

01:40just under 21%, a clear minority. For more fact checks, take a look at euronews.com.

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