LISBON, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's State Budget (OE) for 2020 will include for the first time funds for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that welcome refugees in Portugal, Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported on Monday.
"The NGOs will have, for the first time, in the mechanism of the OE funding through the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) to improve the inclusion of refugees we want to welcome in Portugal," the news agency quoted Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita as saying.
Before his departure for the first global refugee forum, which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hosts on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, the minister stressed that this amount for NGOs will be "for the first time" expressed in the country's state budget.
"The state expressly provides that the migration support funds that are managed by the Ministry of Internal Administration will allow SEF to assume the national counterpart of the actions to be developed by non-governmental organizations," he said.
Regarding the global forum for refugees, Cabrita considered it "very important for the United Nations" to organize, for the first time, such an initiative, noting that Portugal "has consistently" participated in the European refugee reception plans.
Between December 2015 and March 2018, Portugal received 1,192 refugees from Greece and 360 from Italy under the relocation program, the report said, adding that during 2018 and 2019, Portugal received 186 people rescued by humanitarian vessels.
Although Portugal has been involved in all these emergencies, the Portuguese government has advocated "an integrated, stable and permanent European solution to respond to the migration challenge."
