Ana Catarina Mendes alerts to risk of abuse of authority in AIMA

A socialist MEP Ana Catarina Mendes praised today the regularization of migratory to-dos, but regretted the interruption of the original project of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) and warned against the risk of abuse of authority.

In an interview with Lusa, the person responsible for the creation of AIMA, three years ago, considers that the project was interrupted by the fall of the government and considered “a gross error” the return of a unit of foreigners and borders to the PSP.

This change “puts the police component back on immigration, to say that they are all criminals” and “puts the decision to return and execute the decision in the hands of the police,” he lamented.

In 2020, a Ukrainian citizen, Ihor Homenyuk, died at the hands of former SEF agents at Lisbon airport.

“ I hope we do not have a case like that of the Ukrainian citizen again, but I find it a danger [this concentration of powers]”, warned the former Deputy Minister and Parliamentary Affairs of the last socialist government and promoter of the establishment of the agency.

As for AIMA, the former minister said that “the administrative part is making its way, with difficulties”, but added that there are other problems to be solved.

“SEF was an absolutely essential service during all these years, to manage the borders of Portugal, to manage immigration policy in European terms, but from our perspective there was one question that was asked, which was the issue of integration”, which “cannot be done under the hat of police, which has other functions”.

With the creation of AIMA, it was up to the police authorities “to control land, sea and air borders, to combat organized crime, immediately the trafficking of human beings”, with AIMA “the treatment of roles”.

The inclusion of the High Commissioner for Migration (ACM) in the AIMA aimed to extend the agency’s functions so that “it would not only deal with the issue of regularisation of roles, but that the whole integration of immigrants could be monitored”.

However, “it was not written in the stars” that AIMA “started its work on October 29, 2023 and that, on November 7, 2023, the government would end and then there would be early elections”.

“ I feel sorry, because I feel that I did not finish the work I had to do”, said Ana Catarina Mendes, admitting “some joy” to see that some of the projects such as the announced deadline for regularizing the pending work (December 2025) have fulfilled the current Government, justified Ana Catarina Mendes.

The former minister acknowledged that “one of the main problems” in the transition from the SEF to the AIMA had to do with “with the to-dos”, which justified with the covid-19 pandemic, but also with the fact that the announcement of the extinction of the SEF left some malaise, which “generated a significant delay”.

According to the former minister, there were “350,000 manifestations of interest that were pending in the SEF, to which there were 175 thousand residence permits CPLP and still 30 thousand ‘gold’ visas”, numbers that remained “in the transition folder for Minister Leitão Amaro”.

The mission structure created in the meantime “was already foreseen” and “was well chaired by the president of AIMA” whom the PS appointed and which “was able to complete this plan of action that had been destined”.

For the number of pending cases, Ana Catarina Mendes defended, contributed to the resistance to restructuring and the delays caused by Covid-19, but also the fact that the computer system is obsolete.

“From my point of view, I am glad that these to-dos were completed in 2025,” said the former minister, who criticized the PSD/CDS government’s attack on the manifestation of interest, a legal resource eliminated in June 2024 that allowed the regularization of those arriving with a tourist visa.

For the former governor, “the manifestation of interest is no bogeyman”, there is “in the law of foreigners since 2007 and it was created as an exceptional mechanism to give residence permits” because before they were only able to access the residence permit “citizens who were working in Portugal and who had 12 months of social security discounts”.

“ In socialist governments we have always been careful to have safe and legal immigration channels”, he said, warning that the lack of integration policies can cause future social problems.

Ana Catarina Mendes recalled that her ministry left the successor in the “transitional past” a set of projects in this area, such as the “National Plan for the Learning of Foreign Language”.

“ Then, I didn’t see anything,” said Ana Catarina Mendes, insisting that her government also contemplated vocational training measures and “accommodation projects”.

During the period of return to economic growth after the intervention of the ‘troika’, “about 60% of those jobs created were for foreign labour,” he said, refusing the idea that ‘foreigners live on subsidies’.

“ In 2024, more than 1.03 million foreign citizens contributed to social security, according to the data presented by the government itself, already from the PSD ", said.

There is also “a very significant and very positive percentage of foreign skilled labour in Portugal”, thanks to the transposition of Community directives, along with other less qualified ones, which now contribute to the record of agricultural exports, the tourist boom or home care and day care.