Guaranteeing migrants’ rights in a time of pandemics: The Portuguese exception

Abstract

Migrant populations are highly affected in the event of health emergencies. They are more exposed to experiencing greater vulnerabilities due to a combination of political, sociocultural, economic, and legal barriers that might curb migrants’ access to the healthcare system and welfare services. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the risks these communities are subject to.

As European governments began to establish lockdowns to ‘flatten the curve’ of the virus, migrants’ vulnerabilities were exacerbated. It is imperative to understand the impact of health emergencies on vulnerable groups and assess the advantages and limits of such mechanisms. A range of emergency-driven measures were implemented across the European Union, yet they often failed to address the specific needs and vulnerabilities of target populations. Portugal adopted exceptional measures to protect this group through the implementation of an extraordinary regularisation process to all foreign citizens with pending processes. This chapter argues that the adoption of these extraordinary measures sets an example of good practices to safeguard migrants’ human rights and human security in critical times, despite the temporary character of these instruments.