The government has appointed Paulo Batista as national director of the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) to ensure the transition to the establishment of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, according to an order published in Diário da República.
Paulo Batista, 57, had been deputy national director of this security service since June 2022 and succeeds Fernando Pinheiro da Silva, who ended his service commission at his own request and whom the government, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI), thanked today for “his qualified contribution and permanent defense of the public interest” in leading the institution.
Despite the imminent extinction of SEF, the order justifies this appointment with the entry into force of the new Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) on October 29, 2023 – which will absorb part of SEF’s competencies and workers – and the “need to ensure the superior coordination of SEF’s activity and the pursuit of its attributions”.
The appointment of senior coordinating inspector Paulo Batista as national director of SEF is effective immediately.
The order, which highlights the “professional suitability, experience and competence” of the new head, was signed by the Prime Minister, António Costa, and the Minister for Internal Affairs, José Luís Carneiro.
In the statement, the MAI also said that the departure of the previous director followed the “approval of the legal diplomas that define the transfer of SEF competencies to other bodies, as part of the restructuring of the Portuguese border control system, and after World Youth Day, which required great cooperation between the different security forces and services”.
The MAI also indicated the appointment of jurist Mário Magalhães Pedro as SEF’s head of the transfer of the service’s competencies to AIMA, the Judicial Police (PJ) and the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN).
Mário Magalhães Pedro is responsible for managing the process of transitioning employees and reassigning assets, rights and obligations.