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Portugal police say operation breaks up large-scale illegal immigration network

By Reuters Reuters
Undocumented migrants queue for help completing paperwork to obtain a vulnerability certificate to regularise their migration status outside the Cepaim Foundation, a non-governmental organisation supporting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, in Nijar, province of Almeria Spain, April 24, 2026. Cepaim foundation says "With an almost unique level of social consensus in recent years, it is a major step in terms of social justice, but it must continue to be accompanied by specific public policies to keep advancing rights.”. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
Undocumented migrants queue for help completing paperwork to obtain a vulnerability certificate to regularise their migration status outside the Cepaim Foundation, a non-governmental organisation supporting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, in Nijar, province of Almeria Spain, April 24, 2026. Cepaim foundation says "With an almost unique level of social consensus in recent years, it is a major step in terms of social justice, but it must continue to be accompanied by specific public policies to keep advancing rights.”. REUTERS/Nacho Doce Nacho Doce Reuters

LISBON - Portuguese police said on Tuesday that the authorities have dismantled a criminal group allegedly responsible for illegally trying to regularise the status of around 4,000 migrants and arrested two suspected ringleaders, amid a tightening of immigration rules by the centre-right government.

• Police said the operation "Miraculous Land", carried out on Monday on the outskirts of Lisbon, targeted a criminal group dealing in illegal immigration, document forgery, computer fraud and money laundering.

• It said the illegal regularisation of around 4,000 migrants in recent years had generated hundreds of thousands of euros in illicit profits.

• The government has tightened immigration rules, saying loopholes in the system built under the previous administration that gave foreigners easy access to the jobs market had enabled widespread abuse.

• The police said the group used stolen social security online access credentials from dozens of insolvent, inactive companies to provide bogus employment contracts and other documentation.

• It said the investigation began in September 2023 and the main suspects - a businessman and a lawyer - are a foreign national and a Portuguese citizen.

• The police did not identify the two detainees.

• Portugal, with about 10.5 million people, has seen a surge in immigration in recent years.

• Migration agency AIMA estimates more than 1.5 million foreign citizens were legally residing in the country last year, about double the number from three years earlier.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 1:48 PM.

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