Termination of ACM and SEF could jeopardize immigrant integration

This Sunday, academic researcher Ana Rita Gil criticized the dismantling of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and the High Commission for Migration (ACM), believing that the centralized model jeopardizes integration work.

Previously, there was a “state organization dedicated exclusively to integration” and which in many cases “entered into dialogue with the SEF in order to speed up certain processes, taking the side of immigrants rather than the side of public administration.” “, he told Lusa, a professor at Lisbon Public Law (Centre for Public Law Studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon).

“As for this division of functions, it seems to me that it was not done in the best way,” since the newly created Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) took over the functions of AKM, an independent body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and this circumstance “was perceived abroad as a very positive development, since the integration of immigrants is usually handled by the border police themselves” or private associations.

And “it was perceived as good practice and it was a pity that they went through with this merger because now the administrative body AIMA is not completely independent from the Ministry of Internal Administration,” said Ana Rita Gil, a critic of the border transfer. management of the security forces (PSP and GNR) is not specialized.

“I opposed this disappearance from the very beginning because I always believed that although the SEF had some shortcomings”, especially “in terms of the training of many people who worked in this field, I always considered it positive to have a specialist police unit in the unit immigration and immigration control,” said the migration specialist.

“Immigration controls raise issues related to very specific and very specialized fundamental rights that have nothing to do with the normal maintenance of public order that we see every day,” the lawyer emphasized.

For example, a claim for asylum involves “very specific considerations as to what constitutes persecution or what the concept of a refugee is”, drawing attention to the “sensitivity of the interests involved” and contrary to “the trend in the European Union which is for police or special authority dealing with immigration.”

In the past, “we had many guests from abroad who came to see the integration support centers, national centers and local centers” of the AKM, which represented a “safe space” for immigrants, even if they were in a non-standard situation, because at this level there was no data exchange.

“Now, by being integrated into an organization that also controls regulation, people may be discouraged from exercising these social rights,” he says.

“Naturally, I saw here the good will of the government to open more branches and increase recruitment” for AIMA, as well as the possibility of family reunification through the Internet.

“It was deeply shocking that there were no permanent openings for family reunification. We are talking about a fundamental right that people have, namely to be able to name their minor children who remain in the country of origin, or their husband,” he said. highlighted.

Despite this, such regrouping “cannot be an automatic solution” and “there must be a legal assessment of the individual in all these processes,” as in the case of renewals.

In many of these situations, “everything is processed online” and “there are many articles in the law that require a value judgment,” a technical assessment of each case, the lawyer warned.

On October 29, the process of liquidating the SEF took place; the powers of this security service were transferred to seven organizations. Police powers have been transferred to the PSP, GNR and the Judicial Police, while responsibilities for administrative matters relating to foreign nationals are now entrusted to the new AIMA and the Institute of Registration and Notary (IRN).

AIMA, which inherited some 300,000 pending immigrant legalization processes from SEF, also took over ACM’s powers regarding the reception and integration of immigrants.