In response to Lusa regarding the first year of UNEF, the PSP said that the Central Unit for Foreigners and Migration (UCEM), through the Foreigners and Border Control Units (NECF), carried out a total of “5,397 inspection actions between 21 August 2025 and 31 July 2026, in which 52,421 foreign citizens were inspected”.

“These actions resulted in 831 notifications for voluntary departure from the national territory, 285 arrests for irregular stay, and one arrest for disobeying an entry ban,” say the police authorities about the work of UNEF, adding that “it reflects the PSP’s commitment to monitoring the stay of foreign citizens in the national territory and to preventing and detecting situations of irregular stay.”

The UNEF, through the Central Return and Readmission Unit (UCRR), is also responsible for the return processes of foreigners to their countries.

In the first year of activity, “221 forced returns were carried out, 83 of which were escorted to the final destination, and 1,732 voluntary returns were completed, 995 of which were in the first seven months of 2026.”

The Temporary Installation Centre (CIT) for foreigners in Porto (Santo António Housing Unit) and the CIT-equivalent spaces existing at the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro detained “more than 700 nationals of third countries” and “more than 110 requests for documentation were made to Embassies and Consulates to promote the return” of foreigners.

In the accounting done by the PSP, “720 coercive removal processes were initiated, of which 262 have already been decided, and more than 800 flights were scheduled associated with voluntary and forced return procedures”.

In addition, “more than 300 active and passive readmission processes were analysed and decided, and more than 140 risk interviews were carried out in Prisons and Temporary Installation Centres”.

The PSP also said that it continues to analyse cases of forced removal "originating from AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) and the defunct SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service), a significant part of these processes prior to 2020".

The UNEF, informally nicknamed "mini-SEF", began operating on 21 August 2025, and its main objectives are border control and immigration surveillance, which previously belonged to the defunct Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).

With the extinction of the SEF more than two years ago, some of the competences of this security service, namely the control of air borders, passed to the sphere of the PSP, which, since 21 August of last year, has expanded its competences with the creation of the UNEF.