The remaining left-wing parliamentary parties voted against, with the PCP announcing a vote declaration.
The creation of the UNEF arises from a government proposal, with some amendments requested by Chega.
In the parliamentary committee, Chega tried to change the name of the new unit but saw its proposal rejected, so its original project will still be voted on in the plenary session.
After PS and Chega rejected a similar bill in the last legislature, the governing coalition persisted with the measure, which reintroduces a specific unit in the PSP following the dissolution of the Foreigners and Borders Service in 2023, whose functions were distributed among PSP, GNR, PJ, and the then newly established Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA).
AIMA was tasked with overseeing returns, a system that, according to the government, is ineffective and fails to enforce deportation orders for immigrants.
The newly proposed UNEF incorporates AIMA’s responsibilities regarding the removal, readmission, and return of irregular citizens, according to the bill.
UNEF will be responsible for “supervising, inspecting, and controlling airport borders, as well as monitoring the movement of people at these border posts,” and “inspecting the stay of foreign citizens in national territory under PSP jurisdiction.”
The new unit will also have duties to “initiate and manage processes of coercive removal, expulsion, readmission, and voluntary return of foreign citizens, as well as develop technical standards to standardize procedures,” and to open “administrative offense processes” within the “legal framework for entry, stay, exit, and removal of foreigners from national territory.”
The government’s ultimate goal is to ensure a “reformulation of the institutional, legal, and operational framework for controlling the stay of foreign citizens in Portugal, thus making the return system for citizens in illegal situations more effective and providing new impetus to enforcement mechanisms.”
[Updated at 14:50]
