AIMA has been facing serious problems with its IT system
The Migration Agency reached an agreement with the Portuguese Bar Association to call on professionals who would be responsible for evaluating processes in advanced stages, but few were called.
The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has signed an agreement with the Portuguese Bar Association to try to speed up the approximately 450,000 immigrant residency applications that have been stuck for years. The partnership provided for lawyers and solicitors to evaluate the documents and approve or deny the authorizations to reside in the Portuguese country. The goal was for these professionals to be working at full steam to continue the work carried out in the 20 centers opened by the Government, which collect citizens' biometrics and documents. What we are seeing, however, is a series of difficulties on the part of AIMA in hiring and training lawyers and solicitors .
“From everything we have seen, the promised hiring has not been done and the few professionals selected have not received adequate training,” says lawyer Catarina Zuccaro. According to her, based on everything the Portuguese government has said, it was expected that the entire structure to get the AIMA cases off the ground was in place. “The biometric data collection and document delivery part is working, but nothing has moved forward from there,” she says. “This explains why there are so many complaints from immigrants who were assisted by the immigration agency but did not receive their residence cards ,” she emphasizes.
For attorney Tatiana Kazan, AIMA did not do its homework as it should have. “When it signed the agreement with the Bar Association, it was supposed to have called all the professionals selected from among those who signed up for the task. This agility would have allowed for the adequate training required for the tasks defined by AIMA. We know that, even among the attorneys and solicitors who were called, little is being done, because it was not explained to them how the service is performed,” she points out. “We have heard many reports in this regard. In other words, immigrants who depend on AIMA will have to wait a long time for their residence cards,” she warns.
AIMA has been facing serious problems with its IT system
Both Catarina and Tatiana emphasize that the situation is becoming more serious because, in addition to the promise of hiring lawyers and solicitors not having been fully fulfilled, AIMA has been facing serious problems with its IT system. “It’s as if there was a bug,” says Tatiana, who, whenever she goes to the agency’s service centers, hears discouraging reports from those who are in charge of customer service. “The consequence of this is that the number of people who are resorting to the courts to guarantee full AIMA services, including the residence card, has been increasing,” she adds.
Under the agreement between AIMA and the Portuguese Bar Association, each lawyer and solicitor can assess a minimum of 20 cases and a maximum of 200 cases per month. The remuneration is 7.50 euros (R$48) per case. In a video published on social media, the president (president) of the Association, Fernanda de Almeida Pinto, said that the time to analyze a case varies between 10 and 15 minutes. When contacted by PÚBLICO Brasil, neither AIMA nor the Portuguese Bar Association commented on the difficulties in moving forward with the partnership to unblock applications for residency in Portugal made by immigrants.
Bulk billing
Catarina emphasizes that, despite the obstacles to completing the residency authorization processes, AIMA decided to speed up the process of calling immigrants . “In the last few days, thousands of people have received messages with the DUC (Single Collection Document) for paying the fees required by AIMA. Apparently, they are going to speed up the processes at the service centers, while they try to solve the problems they face along the way. We must remember that the professionals who work at the mission centers were trained only to collect biometrics and check citizens’ documents, nothing more,” she points out.
She says that, at this rate, the government may be able to fulfill its promise to serve all immigrants whose cases have been stuck at the posts opened by the task force by June 30 of this year. “But the work will have to be completed later. In other words, it will take months and months for the residence cards to reach the beneficiaries’ homes,” she says. As a result, Tatiana Kazan adds, many immigrants will continue to face the same problems of lack of access to basic services, such as health and education, and underemployment. Residence cards are essential to lifting the immigrant population out of vulnerability.
With the mass call-up of foreigners who are in the AIMA queue to pay the fees stipulated by law for the residence permit, the Government will fatten its coffers. Citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) must each pay 56.80 euros (R$ 364) and the others, 398.80 euros (R$ 2,553). “I believe that, with these payments, the Government will already filter those who will be served by AIMA. Those who do not pay the established amounts will be left behind in the service”, highlights Catarina Zuccaro.