“With the support of the Municipal Civil Protection Service of 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 spending the night on the floor”, said the PSP in a statement released today.

The PSP's announcement comes after Público newspaper reported that the National Prevention Mechanism (MNP), supervised by the Ombudsman's Office, after an unannounced visit, on October 29, 2023, to the Space Equipped as an Installation Center Temporary Agency (EECIT) at Lisbon Airport called for an immediate end to this situation.

In a subsequent report sent to the PSP on January 8, the MNP recommended “the immediate cessation of the maintenance of applicants for international protection in the international area of the airport”, states the PSP, adding that it responded to the recommendations on January 19, with “the assessments that he understood to be necessary.”

The PSP states that it had already recognized “that the international area of Lisbon airport, from a structural point of view, is not capable of the prolonged stay of foreign citizens”.

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

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

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