AIMA breaks the law and blocks access to appointment system, lawyers say
Without information about the date of the Expression of Interest, lawyers may have their actions refused in courts, which require scheduling to obtain the Residence Permit.
Lawyers working with immigration have warned that the Agency for Integration, Migration and
Asylum (AIMA) has blocked access to the SAPA, Automatic Pre-Scheduling System, consultation
page. Through this page, it is possible to find out all the information about the processes, such as
the date of entry, documents entered, whether the fee charged by AIMA was paid, the date of the
appointment, among others. The change occurred in mid-October.
“This is a violation of Article 83 of the Code of Administrative Procedure,” says lawyer
Catarina Zuccaro. The article stipulates: “Interested parties have the right to consult the file that
does not contain classified documents or that reveal commercial or industrial secrets or secrets
relating to literary, artistic or scientific property.”
Catarina points out the problem generated by the lack of access to the system: “AIMA is
unjustifiably limiting the fundamental right to information and transparency, depriving citizens of
the possibility of consulting their process and producing documentary evidence in the
administrative actions in which they are involved”.
She says that judges ask for the date of submission of the Expression of Interest, an instrument
used by immigrants until the beginning of June, when it was abolished by the Government, to
remain in Portugal. “Without this date, judges can refuse cases that require scheduling at AIMA,”
she explains.
The law requires that scheduling must occur within 90 days after the Expression of Interest. For
Catarina, blocking the SAPA system may be a way for AIMA to avoid new lawsuits.
To justify the absence of documents, Catarina has added a printed image of the SAPA Portal screen
to her clients' files. "This way, I justify the absence of the Expression of Interest date, and I do so
with a written explanation," she emphasizes.
According to lawyer Adriana Ayala, the blocking of data on the Expression of Interest is a result of
the migration of the AIMA portal to a new system. “In this new system, it is not possible to view the
documents, and the upload data does not appear,” she says.
Adriana, who works in immigration, believes that AIMA may be acting to try to reduce the queue of
immigrants who depend on it to regularize their lives. From this, more people would be called to
pay the fees, which is a condition for scheduling an appointment. When questioned by PÚBLICO
Brasil, AIMA did not respond.
AIMA has just completed one year and there is no reason to celebrate. There are at least 400,000 pending
immigration processes, the appointment scheduling system is not working and entire families are
being harmed, many without access to basic services, such as health and education.
In response to the agency's disregard for people who depend on it to escape vulnerable situations,
most of the entrepreneurs invited to an event celebrating the agency's one-year anniversary
refused to attend Of the 77 chairs prepared to receive the guests, only 27 were occupied.