In limbo in Lisbon

Increasing numbers of Nepalis have been flocking to Europe as students and workers, or paying traffickers to sneak in through the back door.

And no other country in Europe seems to be as popular a destination as Portugal for them to seek a better life.

According to Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos (GEE) in Lisbon, the number of Nepalis in Portugal had crossed 21,000 even by 2022, and it is expected to be much higher now. This year, Nepal established a resident embassy in Lisbon.

Portugal was the most appealing destination for Nepalis and other immigrants because of its immigration-friendly policy that allowed them to ultimately obtain European permanent residence or passport. 

Even Nepalis from other parts of Europe, like Malta, Cyprus, and the UK used to flock to Portugal. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and foreigners were allowed to pass into Poland, many of the 7,000 Nepalis in Ukraine ended up in Portugal. 

Non-Europeans could directly move to Portugal without a job contract and later request residency after paying social security for a year. But everything changed in June 2024 after Portugal repealed a key migration policy, requiring migrants including those from Nepal to have an employee contract before arriving.

Most Nepalis here work in hospitality, agriculture, or manufacturing. But at their salary levels, they can barely afford soaring house rentals. Nepalis interviewed for this article and pictured here said they hardly had any savings to send home after paying for immigration lawyers or middlemen.

Thousands of immigrants are applying for residency permits but it takes years to get them, and without legal documents they cannot even go back to Nepal without jeopardising their chance of finally getting Portuguese citizenship. Back home they have family, friends and hefty loans.

Vision Gurung, 29, from Pokhara came to Portugal in 2023 from Croatia after working there in construction. He started as a farm worker, but soon quit because it was too physically taxing. 

Now he works at a sushi restaurant and earns €1,100 a month and gets free food and accommodation. Gurung’s temporary residence permit is on its way, and he wants to go home after his it is issued.

Amos Tamang, 30, is worried that he has not yet found a Portuguese person to go with him as a witness to the local government office, a requirement to process his temporary residence permit. He came to Portugal last year from Romania just after the new immigration policy was announced and remembers sleeping hungry in the streets. 

Tamang has two children and a wife back home, and has now found a restaurant job earning €1,000 a month. At Namaste Porto restaurant he looks pensive as he tells a visiting Nepali: “There’s still a long way to go, If I can’t make it here I will go to Spain, I may have better luck there.”

Bikas Saud, 31, shares a rented room with six others in Porto, on the Atlantic coast north of Lisbon. Three are from Nepal and the other three are from Indian Punjab. Saud came to Portugal last year from Cyprus and struggled for months before finally finding a job at a Chinese company. But he was fired without notice after 15 days. 

Now he works at a restaurant and says: “I want to go to Nepal and get married, that is the first thing I will do after getting a residence permit.”

Rajani Garbuja, 28, came from Nepal just three months ago and started working at Namaste Porto. She arrived on a dependent visa through her husband, who lives near the Spanish border and works on a farm. 

“I am finally together with my husband after two years, but it looks like the paperwork will take time,” says Garbuja, whose husband comes to visit once a month. She only earns €500 a month working 12 hours a day for six days a week at the restaurant. 

As immigration becomes an election issue in Portugal (left), Nepalis here fear that the policies will become stricter and they may never get their residence permits. The conservative populist Chega party saw a surge of support in last year’s elections, and hopes to win bigger next time.