PSP and the Lisbon Chamber put an end to foreigners staying overnight at Lisbon Airport

On Wednesday, PSP said that, with the support of the Lisbon City Council, it had succeeded in ending foreigners sleeping overnight on the ground in the international zone of Lisbon airport while awaiting permission to enter the country.

“With the support of the Municipal Civil Protection Service of the Lisbon City Council, it was possible to obtain equipment that made it possible to mitigate the situation, immediately putting an end to the scenario of people sleeping on the ground,” the PSP said. in a published statement.

The PSP’s statement came on the day that the newspaper Público reported that the National Prevention Mechanism (MNP), supervised by the Office of the Ombudsman, following an unannounced visit on October 29, 2023, to a premises equipped as a temporary installation center (EECIT). ) at Lisbon airport called for an immediate end to this situation.

In a follow-up report sent to the PSP on January 8, the MNP recommended “immediately ending the detention of international protection applicants in the international area of ​​the airport,” PSP states, adding that it responded to the recommendations on January 19 with “the assessments it considered necessary.”

In a statement, PSP said it had already recognized “that the international area of ​​Lisbon Airport is, from a structural point of view, not capable of long-term stays of foreign nationals.”

“Thus, taking into account the availability of accommodation spaces in the EECIT at Humberto Delgado Airport, the PSP is gradually accommodating in this space applicants for requests for international protection (PPI) in accordance with the Asylum Law and through judicial assessment,” it said . .

The PSP explains that the maximum capacity of the EECIT “has limitations, which becomes even more concerning when the number of applicants for international protection requests shows a slight upward trend.”

“To mitigate this situation, PSP has implemented the transfer of citizens requesting PPI between EECIT at Porto and Faro airports to guarantee conditions of human dignity while they await a response to their requests, many of which are already under consideration. the judicial assessment (appeal) process,” he explains.

Bar Association President Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro also visited the center on Tuesday as part of a delegation from the Order’s Human Rights Commission, noting the poor reception conditions at the site.