The values ​​were cited by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, who was answering questions from journalists after the Council of Ministers meeting.

“We went from 800 services per day to 5,000, it is a great capacity for expansion”, said the minister, explaining that it was already possible to serve 113 thousand people and that there are a further 108 thousand cases that were rejected.

The values ​​had already been disclosed in an interview with the minister with the newspaper Público and Rádio Renascença. Leitão Amaro emphasised the large increase in the processing of residence requests per day, and said that the “failure in dignity” of those who made the request years ago is being resolved and, on the other hand, there is a reinforcement in terms of security, because there is an identification of people.

The 108,000 rejected cases, he said, are essentially related to non-payments, and it is not a final figure because there may still be cases in which people, receiving the notification, will be able to pay.

In the minister's words, the vast majority of these processes concern people who are no longer in Portugal, because they are people who have not paid the fee that is part of the process.

Leitão Amaro said that in this process there have even been cases of arrests, and explained that the rejection of the residence permit results in illegal presence.

The law has not changed but “now there is supervision, finally”, highlighted Leitão Amaro, remembering that the Government is also changing the return rules.