Portugal’s Borders Service staff today accused the government of irresponsibility for not increasing the number of inspectors, arguing that the current cadre of 800 is insufficient for the Brexit contingency plan.
"In not increasing the number of inspectors, the government is being irresponsible," the union states, arguing that as sufficient inspectors will not be in place the government’s contingency plan will be ineffective or unsafe.
For the president of the SEF union, Acácio Pereira, "it will be necessary to open vacancies for 100 new inspectors on an annual basis," to get the numbers up.
The government announced on Monday that it will recruit 132 officials as part of the Brexit contingency plan as well as spending €4.25 million to buy new border control equipment and associated software.
With the capacity it has today, about 800 inspectors, the SEF won’t be able to cover Lisbon airport, says Pereira, adding that with the new airport in Montijo, Brexit and the urgent need to increase criminal detection skills, there’s no way his members can stop the flow of illegal immigrants who flood into the country every year to work on farms, mostly in the south of the country.