Between 2009 and 2013 the UK deported about 50 Portuguese citizens each year, according to figures released by the Portuguese government in response to a question from Socialist MP Paulo Pisco.
The chief of staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs acknowledged that "the Portuguese community in the UK, most notably in London, has many social problems, marked for over a decade by many cases of addiction and crime."
At present there are about 240 Portuguese prisoners in UK jails, many of whom are at risk of deportation” when their sentences are completed.
Paulo Pisco said that he suspected that British authorities are using a degree of "arbitrariness" in the implementation of EU policy that allows the deportation of EU citizens.
