AIMA will regularize overdue payments to lawyers in a phased manner

The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) announced today, following delays in payments to lawyers handling immigrant regularization processes, that these will be made in phases.

According to information accessed by Lusa, AIMA explained today that payments for March and April processes of the Mission Structure of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (EMAIMA) and for May processes of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) will be regularized in the first phase.

According to the same information, payments for processes related to expressions of interest from May and June for the CPLP processes in June remain to be regularized.

The delay in payments to around 300 lawyers hired by AIMA, under a protocol signed with the Bar Association, was reported today by the newspaper Público, which reported several complaints from lawyers who earn 7.50 euros for each analysis of an immigrant regularization process.

João Massano, president of the Portuguese Bar Association, explained to Lusa that the Association has received several complaints from lawyers who have not yet received their payments, and that delays have been occurring since March. Despite the delays, the president of the Portuguese Bar Association also stated that lawyers continue to receive cases for review.

The Bar Association questioned AIMA about this matter this week, but is still unsure of the reason for these delays. "We will continue to investigate the reason or whether it was an oversight," said João Massano.

The protocol with AIMA was signed last year, each registered lawyer can receive a maximum of 200 cases and the objective is to reduce the number of pending cases at AIMA.