Union warns that new AIMA presidency “does not erase problems”

O Union of Migration Technicians (STM) today welcomed the choice of César Teixeira for the presidency of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) but stressed that his appointment “does not erase the problems” of the institution.

“ Recognizing its path and wishing this change to contribute to a more stable, organized and predictable management”, the STM warned, in a statement, that “this change does not replace answers, does not erase problems and does not solve, by itself, what the union has been denouncing in recent months and which has even led to a strike on Tuesday.

The STM reiterates what it classifies as “serious failures in the management of the agency: chaotic processes, lack of planning, exhausted workers, decisions without criteria and a guardianship that opted for silence instead of dialogue”.

The choice of a new presidency “confirms that the previous phase fell short of what was required and that the workers were left to manage the impossible”, so any “change of leadership does not erase accumulated complaints, ignored requests for meetings, lack of formal answers and lack of institutional respect for AIMA workers”.

In the statement, the union calls for a “transparent and regular communication, creation of a career of its own for migration technicians, a remuneration supplement equivalent to that of GNR and PSP, clear limits on the transfer of permanent tasks to the CLAIM [Local Centres for Support for the Integration of Migrants], the enhancement of specialized technical functions, structured initial training, the end of the precariousness of cultural mediators, respect for representative structures, the guarantee of leadership with experience in the field of migration, the end of management by improvisation and political accountability for the created situation”

Today, the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, announced the appointment of César Teixeira as the new president of AIMA.

At a hearing in the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, Leitão Amaro praised the current president, Pedro Portugal Gaspar, with whom a review was made of the “first phase” of the management of migration policy, which included the resolution of pending and legal amendments.

“ We came together to the conclusion that the results were very positive and the government “has shown great confidence in the current president’s working capacity”, but it is “needed a new phase in which the priorities are different”.

“The decision was an evolution in continuity” and this year “there will be a new president, who is currently a member of the Board of Directors, César Teixeira,” he said.

César Nuno da Costa Teixeira was a lawyer at the CLT – Sociedade de Advogados, which has the former deputy and former vice president of PSD André Coelho Lima as the main partner, and is a social-democratic deputy of the Guimarães Municipal Assembly since 2021, which is now chaired by the Deputy Secretary of State of the Presidency and Immigration, Rui Armindo de Freitas, who has the guardianship of AIMA.

Alongside Pedro Portugal Gaspar, César Teixeira is the only member of the AIMA Board of Directors, appointed in the previous AD government in 2024, which remained in office.