UNEF, informally dubbed “mini-SEF,” began operations on 21 August 2025.

Its primary objectives are border control and immigrant monitoring—responsibilities previously held by the now-defunct Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).

During this first year, UNEF has faced various challenges at airports, particularly in Lisbon, due to long passenger queues at air border control.

Control system

These were primarily caused by the European border control system, which launched in phases starting in October 2025 and has been fully operational since April.

However, it has already been partially suspended several times due to excessive wait times.

“There is no doubt that it was a very turbulent year, especially since it was the year the new border control system was fully implemented. This brought additional challenges to a task that the PSP itself was still getting to know, developing, and learning. All of this created difficulties,” the president of the National Police Officers’ Union (SNOP) told Lusa.

Bruno Pereira said the PSP “endured immense hardships,” with national leadership making “strategic decisions to provide a stronger response to an immense need, particularly regarding airport security.”

He noted that, over the past two months, border issues “have been overcome through the expansion of the border area and the reinforcement of the force with nearly 400 police officers.”

The head of the union representing most PSP commanders and directors also highlighted that the UNEF (Special Border Force Unit) is diverting significant police resources, particularly personnel, arguing that the response at airports was driven by “the whims of the moment and tremendous political and media pressure.”

Bruno Pereira argued that “mechanisms and tools for compensation and management flexibility” could have been introduced to avoid stationing so many officers at international airport borders, allowing some of those nearly 400 officers to be deployed to the country’s territorial commands, which are facing a severe shortage of resources.

The union leader stated that if there were a way to pay for overtime or provide additional compensation, “airport command structures would have a greater capacity to manage the response during specific times of the day.”

“There is no need to have the [air] border constantly staffed by police officers. It is a case of poor resource allocation,” he said.

Bruno Pereira also lamented that, “from a political or strategic standpoint,” air borders are treated as the “top priority,” leaving “internal borders even more understaffed.”

“We have effectively secured control over who comes here, but we have failed to ensure the protection of those same individuals once they have arrived,” he noted.

The president of the PSP officers’ union stated that the regional units for the control and monitoring of foreign nationals—as originally planned—have “not yet been set up.”

According to Bruno Pereira, while some police commands do have dedicated units for foreign nationals, “the vast majority lack the police personnel to carry out this mission,” as there has been no “genuine investment in internal monitoring capabilities.”

Operations report

Lusa has requested a report from the PSP regarding the UNEF’s first year of operations and is awaiting a response.

Following the dissolution of the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service) over two years ago, certain responsibilities, specifically air border control, were transferred to the PSP; the force subsequently expanded its remit on 21 August of last year with the creation of the UNEF.

In addition to airport security and border control, which encompasses the Temporary Holding Center (CIT) for foreign nationals in Porto (the Santo António Housing Unit) and similar holding facilities at the Lisbon, Porto, and Faro airports, the UNEF is also responsible for the removal, readmission, and return of individuals with irregular status, tasks that had previously been assigned to the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).