The promise in August this year, made by officials at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that there would be more staff recruited for the Foreigners and Borders Service, is being upheld and the service has advertised for 100 further inspectors.
The money was made available by the Ministry of Finance to help avert a strike this summer.
Under pressure SEF staff long have complained that they need more hands and more ‘technological resources,’ both of which have been promised by successive governments but never delivered.
The new notice was published in Diário da República today, confirming there are places for an extra 100 personnel at the SEF, in addition to 45 places advertised earlier this year.
Candidates have ten days to apply to sit the entrance examination, with places for 100 trainees. Then there’s a written test, physical and medical assessments and psychological tests.
Successful candidates then will be admitted to the service on probation while they attend a training course in Lisbon and later on-the-job training in the regions or department offices in the capital.
The lack of SEF inspectors has been one of the main blocks to a smooth service, a fact pointed out by the SEF union on many occasions.
According to the SEF and its union, there has been no recruitment of SEF inspectors since 2004. In 2016 and 2017, 90 new inspectors were admitted to the SEF from within the civil service but with a tourist boom, Golden Visa vetting requirements and an increased threat of terrorism needing new EU procedures to be adopted, the SEF needs increased staffing levels, not declining numbers.
The SEF union has been calling for a minimum of 200 recruits to make up for the 13-year job freeze but today’s news was welcomed as a good start.
