“The Prime Minister, António Costa, will have given him instructions to end the SEF. I want the Minister to know that the SEF inspectors are aware of this difficulty, but we also hope that the Minister, politically aware as he is, can explain to the Prime Minister that this Government has no advantage in moving forward with a wrong measure. ”, said the president of the Union for the Career of Investigation and Inspection of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SCIF/SFEF).

Acácio Pereira was speaking at the opening session of the union’s annual congress with the theme “The SEF in times of war in Europe” and in which the extinction of this service is one of the highlighted issues, in an initiative that was attended by the Minister of Administration Internal, José Luís Carneiro.

The trade unionist said that “no technical opinion that advises the extinction of the SEF” reached the Assembly of the Republic and maintained that “Portugal will be worse without an autonomous service”, explaining that the SEF is “a security service and a criminal police body that has more than 1000 inspectors specialising in border control, immigration, asylum and the protection of victims of human trafficking”.

Senseless

“The intention to extinguish SEF was instrumental in political objectives that did not have the national interest in view. It is a disastrous measure”, he stated, noting that “the SEF inspectors have not yet lost hope that the prime minister will give up on senseless political obstinacy”.

Acácio Pereira also said that in this process the inspectors and the union “are not inflexible and are not against adjustments or reforms that improve the service”.

In the end, the trade unionist expressed hope that the Government will back down on the decision and not extinguish SEF.

“I listened carefully to the minister's speech and I think that the speech never spoke of the word extinction, it spoke of the word restructuring. It is a complex process and we still believe that there may in fact be a side step in this situation,” he told reporters.