Union marks three years of AIMA with unanswered claims

O Union of Migration Technicians (STM) today warned that the efforts of workers and socio-cultural mediators of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) continue to be unanswered and asked for explanations regarding the strengthening of the State Budget.

On the day that AIMA marks its third anniversary, the STM again claims the “effective and stable” reinforcement of the staff and the replacement of immigration liaison officers, which Portugal no longer has this year in embassies such as Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, India, China and the United Kingdom.

In a statement, the union considers that the problem is not a lack of money, because the Mission Structure “generated EUR 101 million in revenue for 39 million costs” and the State Budget proposal for 2027 provides for a 38.6% increase in the amount for AIMA, with a total of EUR 135 million.

In this regard, it states that it wants to know how much of this strengthening will lead to the hiring and exploitation of workers, training, equipment and facilities and states that, if accountability is not clear, it will call for an independent audit of the budget implementation of the agency.

The STM also calls for an “appropriate framework” for the socio-cultural mediators and decent facilities and equipment, with ongoing training, transparency in the implementation of the budget and immediate response to requests for audiences.

The best anniversary gift for AIMA would be, they say, to give conditions to those who make it work, remembering that the reinforcement of staff in three years was 18%, but that the foreign population went from one million to 1.6 million.

The trade union structure also underlines that AIMA hires, but loses almost as many workers as those who enter, giving the example of last year, when 110 employees came in, but 91, almost half by mobility to other services.

To this are added about 200 mediators hired through partner entities, which according to the union ensure permanent tasks in a precarious situation.

“ The AIMA workers have proved that it is possible to respond. What's missing is stable personnel, decent facilities and means that work. No one can continue to pay from his own pocket what it is for the State to guarantee”, says Manuela Niza, president of the STM, quoted in the statement.

In the note, the union insists that the recovery of lawsuits was achieved, but it was mainly based on external structures, adding: the Mission Structure mobilized 1,610 people, multiplied the response capacity by seven and issued more than 300,000 residence permits.

However, he recalls that the renovations “were left behind”, exemplifying that in December 2025, only 10% were decided and more than 374,000 titles had expired.

“ The administrative courts remain, for many immigrants, the only way to get a decision: there are still about 85,000 pending cases,” he laments.

The STM insists that, on the ground, the difficulties remain, with the Lisbon and Porto care centers “to burst through the seams”, without sufficient staff and in “unworthy conditions” for those who work and who seek to be attended.

Recalls that the lack of means extends abroad, with posts of immigration liaison officer in diplomatic representations to be empty since the extinction of the Foreign and Border Office (SEF).

“ Today AIMA has a single officer, who accumulates Spain and Morocco”, he says.