The proposal for the State Budget for 2023 (OE2023), which the Government delivered to the Assembly of the Republic, states that the priority is focused “on defending the principles of solidarity and shared responsibility, according to a humanist approach to the migratory phenomenon, without neglecting the necessary promotion of internal security in terms of the regularity of migratory routes and the fight against trafficking in human beings”.

For this purpose, the Government foresees the organic separation between the police functions and the administrative functions of authorisation and documentation of immigrants, a process that is in progress with the restructuring of the Portuguese system of border control.

The document states that the duties of the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) in police matters and criminal investigation are transferred to the National Republican Guard, to the Public Security Police and to the Judiciary Police, while its powers in administrative matters are in charge of a new entity, the Portuguese Agency for Migration and Asylum, as well as the Institute of Registries and Notaries.