Speaking to Lusa, the president of AIMA, Luís Goes Pinheiro, stated that the “planning remains exactly as it was”, as was announced after the creation of AIMA, on October 29th, following the end of the Foreigners and Borders (SEF) and the High Commission for Migration (ACM).

“We hoped to resolve the issue within a year and a half” and “in the summer of next year we will have the issue resolved and, therefore, we will only be dealing with the day-to-day issue”, he stated.

AIMA inherited 350,000 pending regularisation processes, a large part relating to expressions of interest, made by immigrants who are already working in Portugal, but also many cases of family reunifications.

Family reunification

Portugal is a signatory to several international agreements that provide for family reunification, particularly for minors.

In announcing the new AIMA, the government said that a portal for regrouping would be operational at the end of December, but this mechanism only opened today.

“I would have liked to have launched the portal last year, but we also know that it was pending the regulatory decree that was published just last week”, said Goes Pinheiro, in reference to the changes to the foreigners law, which covers the new functions of AIMA , allowing the “modernization and simplification of administrative procedures”, crossing databases of State bodies and using IT solutions.

“With regard to carrying out the procedures, namely with authorizations with other public administration departments, we are in dialogue with other partners in the public administration to create conditions”, said the president of AIMA, reaffirming the commitment to “modernize and transform from the point of digital view of this area”, in order to “create conditions for better access for users”, without compromising the security of the system.

Language learning

In terms of integration, “we also want, during this quarter, to launch a new strategy for promoting Portuguese language learning”, added the president of AIMA, who reaffirmed the organization's commitment to maintaining the tradition of cooperation with civil society that came from ACM.

Recently, several associations that managed the Local Immigrant Assistance Centers (CLAI) saw delays in European support programs, but Goes Pinheiro recalled that there is a promise that approved projects will be paid retroactively so that the financing timeline does not be affected.

“We hope that the collaboration that has always existed, and is absolutely fundamental for us, with civil society will not be disrupted by this process”, stated the AIMA leader, who was not concerned about the fact that migrations could be an electoral issue or with the possibility that the policy for the sector may change after the legislative elections on March 10th.