The government maintains a “political goal” to complete the restructuring of the SEF by the end of March.

The government guaranteed this Wednesday that it supports the “political goal” of completing by the end of March the legislative process to create the Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum (APMA), which will take over the administrative functions of the SEF. .

“We maintain the political goal to complete the legislative process by the end of March. I remind you that today is February 15th. If the commitment was before the end of March, we need to wait until March 31 in order to be able to check whether the political task has been completed or not,” the interior minister said in parliament.

In the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, where he is being heard, José Luis Carneiro was interrogated by the representatives of the PSD, Chega, the Liberal Initiative and Block de Esquerda about the restructuring process of the Aliens and Borders Service, which is pending the creation of the Portuguese Agency for migration and asylum (APMA).

PSD MP Andre Coelho Lima argued that the SEF exists only formally and “has already been liquidated since April 2021”, while IL MP Patricia Gilvas called the situation “unsustainable” and BE Deputy Pedro Filipe Soares said that these security forces live “in limbo”. .

As part of the restructuring of the SEF, which was delayed until the creation of the APMA, police powers of this body will be transferred to the PSP, GNR and PJ, and the current powers in administrative matters regarding foreign citizens will now be carried out by the APMA and the Institute of Registries and Notaries.

“We are in a very advanced process to achieve the set goals, and by the end of March, the legislative process will be completed,” the interior minister explained.

José Luis Carneiro stressed that regarding cooperation with the police, the security forces and services “have been cooperating since December in accordance with agreements with the police.”

According to the minister, the SEF is cooperating with the PD on combating illegal immigration and human trafficking, the private security company is at the air borders with the SEF, as it was already in the summer.

“Officers assigned to the borders, plus law enforcement officers, work at the borders,” he said, stressing that “all inspectors are still working at the national borders, and now they have been strengthened by the PSP and the NDP.”

Regarding the World Youth Day (WYD), which takes place in Lisbon from 1 to 6 August and which will be attended by Pope Francis, the Minister said that the SEF inspectors who performed these functions, as well as the PSP and GNR personnel who were trained at this time .

The official’s clarification came after doubts arose about how border controls would be handled after the restructuring of the SEF during the WYD, which will include more than 1.5 million people.

In addition to the government finalizing the diploma that will create the future Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum, the official also revealed that the executive is finalizing a law that will define rules as part of the process of transferring SEF workers, resources and assets to other facilities. .

According to José Luis Carneiro, the SEF has trained 154 GNR officers and 160 PSP officers on border control issues so far, and the training of 88 more public security police agents has yet to be completed.

The decision to restructure the SEF was made by the previous government and approved by the Assembly of the Republic in November 2021, but has already been postponed twice.