Immigration agency faces yet another hurdle
The shortage of human resources at Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) since it was created is set to worsen with requests from around 100 employees to leave, according to a report published in Expresso newspaper on Friday.
According to Expresso, which cites a report drawn up this month by AIMA on work to clear the backlogs left over by the Immigration and Borders Service (SEF), the new agency started work in October 2023 with just 714 staff – 41% of the contingent from the former institution that would on paper have been available.
The document states that there was “a net reduction in the total number of staff, due to the departure of several workers, which was not compensated for by the inflows in the meantime.
“Many more immediately requested a transfer to other state services, but AIMA stopped them, a situation that will not be able to happen under the law,” according to Expresso, which quotes a source linked to the agency who says that most of the employees have resubmitted their requests.
The report quoted by Expresso says: “There are several requests for mobility (transfer), and it is estimated that they could represent the departure of 100 workers.”
The shortage of manpower is exacerbating the problem at the agency, given the high number of requests inherited from SEF for residence permits for immigrants that are awaiting a response.
Expresso also quotes the report as saying that AIMA is aware of the existence of at least 459,384 ongoing cases as of October 29, 2023, the majority (344,619) of them relating to legalisation through expressions of interest (for immigrants who are already in Portugal, without the need to apply for legal entry).
“At the time of SEF’s dissolution, there were still more than 3,200 humanitarian protection cases on hold – 327 of them for minors – 4,000 asylum applications and almost 15,000 applications for nationality,” adds the newspaper.
The report also highlights the legacy of 3,000 forced removals of immigrants who entered or remained in Portugal illegally.
“It was necessary to make an effort (still ongoing) to reconstitute the state of analysis, given the lack of a database indicating the status of each case,” states the document quoted by Expresso. “So far, it has been possible to inventory the cases from 2022 and 2023, totalling 508.”
The document states that these figures are flawed: “They don’t include, for example, applications for golden visas, residence permits for students or those made as part of family reunification.”
In the report, AIMA also acknowledges that “it is not possible to simply and reliably identify the number of pending cases” with the information in the databases.
The waiting time for immigrants, meanwhile, is easier to gauge. Most of the cases were started in 2017 and there are six from an earlier date, still unanswered, including one from 2008 and one from 2009, writes the newspaper, which notes that the system’s weaknesses in terms of information technology are repeatedly mentioned in the report.
The AIMA document refers to the “obsolescence of the technological infrastructure” which required “significant corrective and maintenance interventions to ensure response capacity and minimum standards of cybersecurity and information security.”
Last week, Portugal’s right-of-centre coalition government announced that it would review the institutional model for monitoring immigrants, describing as a “blunder” the previous Socialist government’s decision to replace SEF with a new agency.
“Portugal had an institution, the institution was eliminated, its human resources were distributed among various institutions,” said the cabinet office minister, António Leitão Amaro, last week, noting that the decision had been criticised by various parties and organisations. He promised the announcement of measures for the sector for “the coming weeks” to include a “correction also in the institutional field,” and without committing to keeping AIMA in existence.
Source: Expresso/LUSA
