Portugal will introduce a new system for the return and expulsion of migrants staying in the country without authorisation and create the National Foreigners and Borders Unit within the police, the government announced on Thursday.
“One of the tragic mistakes of the previous government in terms of migration was the way SEF [the Foreigners and Immigration Service] was abolished”, said Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro at the press conference following the cabinet meeting.
“There was a void in the return, in removing illegal citizens, in the lack of inspection and in many entry control tasks. We had promised, and today we are realising the creation of the National Aliens and Borders Unit in the PSP,” he added.
Leitão Amaro stressed that the new police unit will be responsible for “air border control”, immigration enforcement and the removal and repatriation of irregular migrants, which the minister said is “not working” currently.
The new measures for the return and expulsion of irregular migrants are part of a bill on border control that the government approved on Thursday and will be sent to parliament.
The government announced the new police unit in June when it published the Migration Action Plan.
Following the abolition of the SEF on 29 October last year, the police created the Airport Security and Border Control Unit, which controls people entering and leaving the country by air and for airport security.
(Célia Paulo | Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
