The Bobadela center, the first step for asylum seekers in Portugal

Faced with a declining demographics and wanting to portray itself as a "humanist" country, Portugal is open to attracting newcomers to its territory. To that end, the country actively participates in European resettlement programs and is favorably inclined toward requests to accept migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by humanitarian vessels. But it is also getting an increasing number of requests for "spontaneous" asylum, filed by people who arrived in Portugal by their own means. For these people, the course is often more complicated. InfoMigrants went to meet them in the reception center in Bobadela, a suburb of Lisbon.