The number of complaints filed against the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) fell this year to about half of what was recorded in 2024, according to the agency's president, Pedro Portugal Gaspar. In statements made in Évora on the sidelines of the signing of a protocol with the University of Évora for the creation of a new Local Support Centre for Migrant Integration (CLAIM), the official stated that the reduction in complaints has occurred despite an increase in attendance, highlighting that the agency carried out over 600,000 attendances and issued over 500,000 residence cards in the past year.
For Pedro Portugal Gaspar, the scale of the operation explains the existence of complaints, since situations such as errors on issued cards or incorrect addresses may occur. Nevertheless, he maintains that the evolution of the agency's activity is translating into a significant reduction in complaints, while noting that any complaint remains relevant.
The Migration Technicians Union (STM) interprets the decline in complaints very differently. The STM considers that the reduction does not necessarily demonstrate an improvement in services and argues that it may be related to the growing difficulties migrants face in contacting the agency, including problems with attendance, lack of response to email contacts, congested phone lines and delays in resolving processes.
The union also points to delays in issuing residence permits, pending processes without a clear forecast for conclusion, lack of workers in some services and closed branches or branches operating on a limited basis. The STM also questions the growing use of CLAIMs for tasks that should be performed directly by AIMA and challenges the agency to publish indicators such as the number of pending processes, average response times, incomplete attendances, frequency of errors and effective capacity of each branch.
