Portugal wants more refugees to help revive dwindling population

Traditionally a country of emigration, Portugal has offered to take up to 10,000 migrants from countries struggling to cope with the influx, to help maintain its own population. Portugal’s socialist premier Antonio Costa last week sent letters to Austria, Greece, Italy and Sweden — countries that have seen refugees arrive in large numbers — offering […]

Traditionally a country of emigration, Portugal has offered to take up to 10,000 migrants from countries struggling to cope with the influx, to help maintain its own population.
Portugal’s socialist premier Antonio Costa last week sent letters to Austria, Greece, Italy and Sweden — countries that have seen refugees arrive in large numbers — offering to welcome up to 5,800 more refugees in addition to the 4,500 they already agreed to take as part of the European Union’s refugee quota system.
Portugal has taken just 32 migrants, and the country’s ambassador to Greece, Rui Alberto Tereno, even visited a Greek refugee camp recently in an effort to promote the sunny coastal nation to the migrants making their way across Europe. Portugal is little known and “needs to make its voice heard to migrants arriving in Europe,” head of the Portuguese Refugee Council (CPR) Teresa Tito Morais, said.