PSP's "Mini-SEF" will have four central units and at least five regional ones

National director of the PSP's National Foreigners and Borders Unit will have four more deputy directors. Brazilians and Timorese will remain free to enter as tourists.

The new National Unit of Foreigners and Borders (UNEF) of the Public Security Police (PSP), which will take over the responsibilities of the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA) regarding the removal, readmission, and return of irregular citizens, will have decentralized services. In addition to the main core, led by the national director, UNEF will comprise four national units spread across the national territory.

These units will be led by superintendents, following the organizational structure proposed by the Government, which has already been submitted to the Assembly of the Republic. The structure will also include several regional units, whose territorial jurisdiction will coincide with NUT II regions (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes) – five in mainland Portugal and the autonomous regions. The regional units will be headed by superintendents or deputy superintendents and will be classified as metropolitan police divisions or police divisions, respectively, for salary purposes.

The PSP will be responsible for "registering and updating police, criminal, and coercive removal, expulsion, readmission, and voluntary return information of foreign citizens at air borders," according to the Government's proposed law. The PSP will also be tasked with "ensuring the execution of coercive removal, expulsion, readmission, and voluntary return processes."

Immigrants who enter or remain illegally in the country will have between 10 and 20 business days to leave voluntarily, with the possibility of an extension based on factors such as "the duration of their stay, the presence of children in school, and the existence of other family members or social ties." This Government proposal, which still awaits scheduling for voting in the Assembly of the Republic, maintains the conditions already outlined in the current law.

Expulsion orders for 230 irregular immigrants in the second quarter

The main goal is to ensure that citizens issued with expulsion orders effectively leave the country, as Portugal currently manages to execute only about 4% of these orders. Data released by Eurostat this Monday shows that, in the second quarter of 2024, Portugal issued expulsion orders to 230 foreign citizens in an irregular situation (after issuing 345 in the first quarter) but was only able to carry out 15 of these removals.

Among the responsibilities of the new unit, now considered a "mini-SEF" (a reference to the now-defunct Foreigners and Borders Service, replaced by AIMA) within the PSP, is also the management of temporary accommodation centers for immigrants and the responsibility for "ensuring the security of people and property, policing, maintaining public order, and resolving tactical-police incidents at airports integrated into the air border." Under its new competencies, PSP agents may be deployed to "countries with a high migration risk, under cooperation agreements or at the request of those countries' border management authorities," with teams composed of at least two officers.

Brazilians and Timorese exempt from visas

The Government's proposal includes an article dedicated to immigrants covered by the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) agreement, which states that those "holding a short-term visa or who have legally entered the national territory can apply for a temporary residence permit."

In practice, as the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, has already announced, citizens from Brazil and Timor-Leste, with whom Portugal has bilateral agreements, may enter the country without the need for a visa, for example, for holidays, and then request the regularization of their stay in Portugal.

However, it is unclear whether these foreigners, who benefit from this positive discrimination measure, will still need to meet certain mandatory requirements, such as proof of financial self-sufficiency. This exception was already outlined in the Immigration Law, under article 87-A, but it was not enforced due to the "manifestation of interest" system, which allowed immigrants who, even if they had entered illegally, were already working and contributing to Social Security to legalize their status. This pathway was eliminated by the current Government in early June, as, according to Leitão Amaro, it turned Portugal into a "wide-open-door country."

Fonte: www.publico.pt