The inspectors of Portugal’s Foreigners and Immigration Service (SEF) will collaborate with the PSP and GNR police forces at air and sea border crossings for the first two years as part of the restructuring of the SEF.
The cabinet approved on Thursday the creation of the Portuguese Agency for Minorities, Migration and Asylum and the decree-law that will regulate the transitional regime of SEF workers.
At the end of the cabinet meeting, the minister of internal administration explained that, under this transition, a “functional allocation mechanism” will be created so that SEF inspectors, who will be integrated into the career of the Judiciary Police, may remain temporarily at air and sea border posts, which will become the responsibility of the PSP and GNR, respectively.
“For one year, we will have SEF employees supporting the PSP and GNR, transmitting knowledge to the security forces,” explained José Luís Carneiro, adding that this period may be extended, but in the second year, only 50% of the staff will remain.
“At the end of this transition, everyone will join the Judiciary Police as a whole,” he said.
According to the minister, the measure is the result of negotiations with the unions that represent SEF inspectors in the surveillance and investigation career, in the scope of which the block transition was ensured, as well as the equivalence of professional status.
The government also “ensured that there is respect for the location of the performance of the functions of the professionals who have served in SEF”.
On the other hand, the restructuring of SEF also provides for the creation of a Border and Immigration Coordination Unit as part of the Internal Security System, which “will strengthen capacities in terms of sharing available information from the different security and border regulation services”.
The new unit will ensure a “greater capacity to coordinate the efforts of security forces and services to ensure the objective of regulated and secure borders”.
The restructuring of SEF was decided by the previous government and approved in parliament in November 2021, having been postponed twice.
The remaining functions will pass to the new Portuguese Agency for Minorities, Migration and Asylum, which will also integrate the High Commission for Migration.
