The delay in legalizing migrants has been criticized by several associations, and on Monday, the ombudsman, Ana Lúcia Amaral, also drew attention to the time that migrant legalization processes are taking, especially after the extinction of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).

In an opinion article published today in the newspaper Público, Ana Catarina Mendes, who supervised the agency, highlights that six months after taking office, AIMA "has already done a lot", but it is necessary to "give time to time".

She argues that it is necessary to "give time for the installation of AIMA to be completed, allowing the solutions that AIMA has to offer for these problems to be conveniently tested is more sensible than going back, undoing what has been done, starting from scratch".

"Yes, AIMA has not done everything, there is much to be done -- because what we wanted was much more than a change in procedures and administrative issues: what we wanted (and what is desired) is a paradigm shift," she said.

The PS deputy states that: "the transition took place at a time when immigration is increasing and becoming more complex in Portugal and the public administration would be facing a sharp increase in demand, regardless of whether these administrative issues were managed by the former SEF or by the newly created AIMA".

In the article, Ana Catarina Mendes also highlights that the "inheritance was heavy", with "almost 400 thousand pending cases that some, in the name of their agenda of regression, hide".

"Calling it political ineptitude to want a different vision, with AIMA as an expression of a country open to the world, will stay with whoever says it," she stressed.

The former minister highlights the importance of working towards the "objective of regular, orderly and safe migratory flows" and states that "this does not begin or end with the many things that AIMA has in hand".

"In order to adapt the way in which Portugal views immigrants, it is also necessary to grant visas and residence permits, reducing their complexity, deadlines and procedures. It is necessary to simplify and shorten the procedures for renewing residence permits. It is necessary to adapt the consular network to this new reality," she stressed.

In Ana Catarina Mendes' understanding, "making and unmaking public policies without testing and evaluating them has often hindered the good governance of the country".

In an interview released on Monday by Rádio Renascença, the ombudsman, Ana Lúcia Amaral, also drew attention to the time that migrant legalization processes are taking, especially after the extinction of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), and acknowledged that "things are not going well".

Things "are not going well because people who enter later need to have a residence permit and take a long time to obtain it, they are not going well because the residence permit has a deadline and needs to be renewed and the renewal of the residence permit is another nightmare", she said.

Maria Lúcia Amaral recalled that the processes already took time when the competence was of the SEF and that now, with the competence "distributed among multiple entities", the "maximum challenge" is to coordinate the entire process.

"When the public authorities of a State have dysfunctions of this nature, placing a large number of people in situations of fragility in limbo, all kinds of shady businesses flourish or tend to flourish," considered Maria Lúcia Amaral, referring to the "networks that use the vulnerability of these people, for example, to occupy the service queues before the Portuguese authorities, on which the legalization of people depends".

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