A new police unit, the National Foreigners and Borders Unit (UNEF) – also called the “mini SEF” – will start operating this Thursday with 1,200 officers responsible for border control at airports.
Portugal‘s old Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) was shut down in 2023, and some of its responsibilities were moved to the Public Security Police (PSP). PSP will now handle the removal, readmission, and return of people without legal status, a task that was previously managed by the Agency for Migration Integration and Asylum (AIMA).
PSP said it plans to expand UNEF to about 2,000 staff in the medium term, including police officers, technical specialists, service providers, and volunteers from civil society and non-governmental organisations.
This increase in staff is required due to new tasks assigned to UNEF, the upcoming entry-exit system launching on October 12, 2025, and the European Pact for Migration and Asylum, set to take effect next year, PSP explains in a statement.
In addition to removal and return operations, which were the responsibility of AIMA, the surveillance, inspection and control of air borders, which were already the responsibility of PSP, will also be concentrated in the new unit, which the national PSP director will lead.
UNEF will also open administrative offence cases under the legal regime for the entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners from the country.
The aim is for the PSP’s current airport security and border control divisions, created following the demise of SEF and located at Lisbon, Porto, Faro, the Azores and Madeira airports, to be integrated into UNEF.
However, the transfer of the divisions to UNEF will be a “gradual and phased” process to ensure “articulation with the existing PSP units”, explained PSP.
Paulo Santos, a trade union leader from the Police Professionals’ Trade Union Association (ASPP), told Lusa that the police have a long-standing problem with staff shortages and acknowledged his reservations about this new unit, pointing to “more burdens on police officers”.
This new unit was the result of a government proposal, the project of which had some changes requested by Chega, who tried to change the name of the unit, but to no avail.
The government’s proposal was approved in parliament in July, with PSD, Chega, IL and CDS voting in favour, PS and JPP abstaining, and the other left-wing parties voting against.
Source: LUSA
