Staff strike leaves AIMA offices closed across Portugal as union and agency clash over turnout figures
The Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA) faced significant disruption this Tuesday as staff staged a 24-hour national strike, with conflicting accounts of participation levels and visible effects on public services. The union reported about 50% adherence by early afternoon, while AIMA management put the figure at 11.31% or 94 workers out of 831.
Several service counters remained shut. In Porto, the Avenida de França delegation closed entirely. In Lisbon, the Anjos branch operated with partial service, while Odivelas saw no public attendance. Services in Faro also closed, and in some locations only cultural mediators — staff on precarious contracts — reported for work.
Citizens with appointments scheduled for Tuesday at closed branches will be contacted by email with a new date, according to AIMA, and need take no further action to reschedule.
A dispute over recognition and pay
The Sindicato dos Técnicos de Migração (STM), which represents migration workers, called the strike to demand a dedicated technical career path for migration staff and a pay supplement equivalent to those granted to GNR and PSP officers who perform border control functions.
The union argues that AIMA staff handle verification of documents, fraud detection, risk analysis and administrative decisions under national and European law — tasks it says require comparable recognition to those carried out by security forces. STM also demands an end to precarious contracts for cultural mediators and clear limits on task transfers to local support centres.
STM president Manuela Niza Ribeiro said the union had requested a meeting with the government but received no response.
