Key figures — as of 2026-09-07: UNEF (Unidade Nacional de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras) became operational 21 August 2025 under PSP and marked its first full year on 21 August 2026 — checking 19,749,328 people at air borders and deploying 1,504 officers; it inherited roughly 100,000 pending removal/return files from AIMA at launch; the EU's EES biometric system has been fully operational at all Portuguese airports since 10 April 2026; the unit made 428 detentions in its first year.
A Year of "Mini-SEF" — And the Numbers Behind It
Foreigners dealing with Portuguese bureaucracy now split their attention between two very different bodies. One processes paperwork. The other carries a badge and can put you on a plane.
That second body is UNEF, the Unidade Nacional de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras, created inside the PSP (Polícia de Segurança Pública) under Lei n.º 55-C/2025, de 22 de julho. Nicknamed the "mini-SEF," it entered into operation on 21 August 2025, with border control and immigration enforcement as its main objectives — functions that previously sat with the now-defunct Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras. A year on, the PSP has published its first full-year balance sheet: 1,504 officers were mobilised for airport security and air border control between 21 August 2025 and 20 August 2026, during which 19,749,328 people were checked and 428 arrests made.
Who Does What Now: AIMA vs UNEF
The split is deliberate and, for anyone navigating Portuguese immigration, worth memorising. Besides airport security and border control — which includes the temporary holding centre in Porto and equivalent spaces at the Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports — UNEF is also responsible for removal, readmission and return operations for people in an irregular situation, functions that had previously been assigned to AIMA. In plain terms: AIMA still runs residence permits, renewals and integration support; UNEF now runs the coercive side — stopping people at the border, opening infringement files, and physically enforcing deportation orders.
The reform also formalised something already underway. Since November 2023 the PSP had already been carrying out part of these duties, training more than 1,200 officers for border control and airport security in that period. UNEF simply gave that arrangement a name, a legal basis and — crucially — the removals workload that AIMA had struggled to clear. According to reporting from the unit's launch week, UNEF inherited return and removal competences for people in an irregular situation who until then fell under AIMA's remit, with an estimated 100,000 pending files handed over.
Why the Change Happened
The stated logic came straight from AIMA's own limitations. As one guide for immigrants summarised it at the time, the special unit was created by the government to improve the capacity to remove immigrants without the right to stay, a function previously held by SEF and then handed to AIMA — but the government's view was that the agency lacked the capacity to carry it out. Parliament approved the measure with backing from the centre-right and Chega; the left abstained or voted against.
UNEF's legal powers go beyond airport checks. The unit was also tasked with instructing and managing files on coercive removal, expulsion, readmission and voluntary return, drafting technical rules to standardise procedures, and opening infringement proceedings under the legal regime governing entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners.
The Traffic Behind the Numbers
The scale of what UNEF now handles has grown quickly. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, the PSP controlled 4,313,811 passengers at national airports, a 12.5% increase on the same period of 2025, while interceptions rose 45.3% to 9,302, precautionary measures jumped 153% to 5,484, and entry refusals climbed 57.5% to 704. Entry-ban decisions rose even more sharply, up 217.4%.
GrowIN analysis: those figures reveal something worth flagging — enforcement is intensifying much faster than travel itself. Passenger volume grew 12.5% year-on-year, but interceptions grew 45.3% and entry refusals 57.5%. That means enforcement actions rose roughly three to four times faster than the underlying traffic that triggered them, suggesting tighter screening rather than simply more travellers passing through. Set against the full-year total of 19.75 million people checked and 428 detentions, that also works out to enforcement action on roughly 1 in every 46,000 travellers processed — a small share of overall traffic, but a rapidly growing one.
EES Adds Another Layer
Border checks got more complex on top of the reorganisation. EES has been fully operational at every Portuguese airport since 10 April 2026, with border control at Lisbon, Porto and Faro run by the PSP through UNEF, which took over air border duties from the dissolved SEF. Non-EU visitors on short stays now have fingerprints and photos logged on entry and exit — and the rollout hasn't been seamless: on 11 and 12 April 2026, PSP paused biometric collection on departures at Lisbon, Porto and Faro to stop passengers missing flights, while arrivals were unaffected.
Growing Pains — and What to Watch
UNEF's own police union isn't declaring victory. The union's president complained that air borders have become "the maximum priority" from a political standpoint, leaving internal border enforcement even more under-resourced — arriving passengers are controlled well, he said, but "we haven't ensured the protection of these same people once they're already here." He also noted that regional units for controlling and monitoring foreigners inland "aren't yet set up" as planned, existing only in a handful of police commands.
Immigrant advocacy groups take a harder line. Solidariedade Imigrante's president has described UNEF as a "force of persecution, stigmatisation and violence against immigrants," drawing comparisons to US-style enforcement policing. The PSP, for its part, says it's still building toward its target headcount — the medium-term aim is for UNEF to employ around 2,000 people, including officers, specialist technicians, service providers and civil society volunteers.
What This Means If You're Living Here
For anyone with an active residence process, the practical takeaway is simple: AIMA is your point of contact for permits, renewals and status questions; UNEF is who shows up if a removal order gets enforced. They are separate chains of command with separate priorities, and a slow AIMA case doesn't necessarily mean UNEF stays out of the picture — irregular status can trigger action from the police side independently of where your paperwork sits. Anyone entering on a short-stay Schengen visa or visa-exempt basis should also expect EES biometric checks at every crossing, with occasional queues while the system beds in.
GrowIN Portugal Editorial verdict: enforcement in Portugal now has a dedicated police force behind it, distinct from the agency that processes your paperwork — and foreigners should know which door to knock on for which problem.
Anyone with a pending residence application, a lapsed permit, or questions about how enforcement rules might apply to their situation should check current guidance on our visas hub and confirm case-specific details directly with AIMA or a qualified immigration lawyer before assuming how a renewal or removal process will unfold.