The Minister of Internal Administration assured this Friday that the decisions taken on the restructuring of the Immigration and Border Service (SEF), postponed twice, “are yet to be fulfilled” and “are part of the commitments assumed” by the Government.
“The decisions that were made in relation to the SEF are for compliance and are part of the commitments made between all the ministries that will assume responsibilities in this matter,” said José Luís Carneiro, when asked by journalists about the process of extinction of the SEF. SEF.
The minister, who spoke of restructuring the Foreigners and Borders Service and not extinguishing it, said that the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, is expected to close the proposal on the creation of the Portuguese Migration and Asylum Agency until next month. . end of the year.
“Regarding the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we had two major concerns and they are also contemplated in the proposal that we have established,” said the minister, noting that this Friday he will have a meeting with Ana Catarina Mendes to address “one more time this topic”.
In the context of the extinction of the SEF, which in the meantime was postponed until the creation of the Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum (APMA), the police powers of the Immigration and Border Service will pass to the PSP, GNR and Judicial Policewhile the current powers in administrative matters in relation to foreign citizens are now exercised by the APMA and the Institute of Registries and Notaries.
The extinction of the SEF was decided by the previous government and approved by the Assembly of the Republic in November 2021, having already been postponed twice.
At the end of the presentation at the Ministry of Internal Administration, in Lisbon, of the contingency plan that was in force at the air border posts of the national airports between June and September, José Luís Carneiro explained what the concerns were in the context of this process. “First, guarantee the training of PSP and GNR human resources so that they are prepared to assume their responsibilities in airport, maritime, and land control,” he explained.
The minister stressed that a survey was carried out on the needs to strengthen human resources, with a view to evaluating which inspectors can integrate the PSP and the GNR for “supervision purposes of the so-called first line of the airport.”
The PSP and the GNR control the first line, which is basically less demanding from a technical and operational point of view. The second and third lines of air, sea and land border control are guaranteed with the supervision of SEF inspectors, since they have a level of knowledge and technical expertise that allows them to provide security to the agents or guards who work on the front line. ”. He explained.
The minister also said that they sought to find “regulatory security that safeguards the rights” of SEF workers in terms of career, pay situation and professional progression.
Source: Observadora
