The restructuring of the Foreigners and Borders Service will only take effect when the decree that will create the Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum (APMA) comes into force, an entity that will be responsible for the administrative nature of SEF.

In the bill, which will be debated in plenary on Wednesday, with a request for priority and urgency, the Government withdraws the 180-day deadline that it had given to create the APMA, with no scheduled date.

In the explanatory memorandum, the Government invokes the pandemic, the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic and the context of war in Ukraine for not having advanced with the restructuring of services.

The dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic, with the call for early elections, "conditioned the activity of the outgoing government, limiting the implementation of structuring measures", claims the Executive.

On Friday, at the end of the Extraordinary Council of Ministers, the Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro, said that the APMA “will only be constituted when the dimensions are sufficiently mature”.

José Luís Carneiro, justified the postponement of the extinction of SEF with the need to mature the planned changes, namely in terms of the training of those who will be in charge of airport control.