This IGAI position, which the Lusa agency had access to, comes after the constraints placed on the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), which is unable to comply with the decisions of the Penal Execution Court, which continues to expel citizens from countries outside the European Union during the period of state of emergency and temporary closure of airspace.

At issue are foreign nationals convicted in Portugal and who, after serving part of the sentence in prison, have as an accessory penalty expulsion to the country of origin.

Until their expulsion, these foreign citizens, some of them convicted of murder, are installed in the SEF centres at the airports, but, at the moment, the infrastructure in Lisbon is closed, so they are forwarded to the installation of Porto, where convicts live with asylum seekers.

However, Portugal is in a state of emergency due to the covid-19 pandemic and airspace outside the European Union is closed until 15 May, in a decision by the European Commission, which makes it impossible for SEF to comply with these decisions of the Penal Execution Court.

"The emergency situation and the inherent temporary nature do not conflict with the basis of decisions to expel citizens from national territory", refers the IGAI in the recommendation to SEF on how to act when faced with these decisions of the Court of Execution of Sentences.

Stressing that "due to the emergency situation it is important to restrict the movement of people", the IGAI considers that temporarily the execution of the expulsion of a citizen from the national territory should not be decided.

For IGAI, the emergency measures in force in the area of ??borders block “the effectiveness of the rules” that underlie the decisions that order the expulsion of citizens from the national territory.

This body, under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Administration, also stresses that the release of prisoners to carry out the accessory expulsion penalty may not have, in the present context and at the limit, a legal basis.

“In fact, the execution of what cannot be performed cannot be ordered. And there are no grounds, in all the exceptional measures adopted in the context of combating the pandemic by coivid-19, for the transfer of prisoners from prison facilities to the facilities of the services and security forces, namely the Foreign and Border Services, which do not have the vocation or purpose to continue the execution of prison sentences”, says IGAI.

In this sense, this body that supervises the activity of the security forces and service advises the SEF, when faced with a decision that orders the execution of the expulsion, to apply the legal regime of entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners from the country.