The SEF admitted this Friday that there will always be queues and waiting times at airport border posts on certain days of the week, but that the teams will work to improve the situation.
The chief inspector José Aleixo was speaking this Friday at the Lisbon airport after the contingency plan that provides for more human and electronic resources at national airports came into force in the capital.
The passenger flow is always high. There will always be waiting times and queues, but we are working to improve”, said José Aleixo, adding that this Friday there has been a reinforcement of four people in the morning shift and there will be four more in the afternoon.
The chief inspector of the SEF said that between 5:20 am and 9:00 am this Friday, 20 flights arrived with 4,000 people.
National airports will have a reinforcement of 238 SEF and PSP elements during the summer months, 82% more than the current staff at border posts, according to the contingency plan presented this Tuesday.
SEF prepares operations plan for the summer months at airports
The national director of the Immigration and Border Service (SEF), Fernando Silva, indicated that this reinforcement of human resources will be gradual and will stabilize on July 4.
In total, Portuguese airports will have 529 elements to do border control to passengers coming from flights from countries outside the European Union.
In addition to the reinforcement of SEF inspectors from all over the country, this plan has 168 PSP agents, said Fernando Silva.
The contingency plan for national air border posts for the months of June to September, presented to the Ministry of the Interior, also includes various technological solutions for Lisbon Airport.
The contingency plan started on Thursday at Faro airport and this Friday in Lisbon, gradually coming into force and at the end of the first half of June it will be operational at all six airports.
EITHER Lisbon airport is the one that will be reinforced with more personnelwith 102, going to 241, followed by Faro, with 45 more operational troops, will have 104 troops, and Porto, which will have 48 more troops, out of a total of 89.
For its part, the Funchal airport will have a reinforcement of 24 elements, going on to have 48 troops in the summer months, the Porto Santo airport will have one more element, in a total of four, and the Ponta Delgada It has 11 more elements, totaling 24 troops involved.
Technological solutions will be implemented at Lisbon airport, specifically through the creation of a mobile control team reinforced with technology SEFMobile (app in the mobile phone for border control developed by SEF) and development of a pilot project for early border control, through a system of pre-registration by passengers.
During the summer months, at Lisbon airport, the use of e-gates (allow faster processing and reading of passports with biometric data) to other nationalities with low migratory risk and the strengthening of awareness campaigns for the use of e-gates for all eligible passengers.
Source: Observadora
