The Immigration and Border Service (SEF) clarified this Monday that the Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon, registered, late on Sunday morning, “an increase in passengers in arrivals”with some 3,000 flights to be controlled by the SEF, with the situation causing “serious delays in border control”.
It was not possible for the Service to cover, temporarily, the positions appropriate to the high flow of passengers, and, for operational reasons, it was necessary to reinforce the second line with inspectors, to the detriment of these positions, given the very high number of passengers intercepted at the control and that they were waiting for an interview to prepare reports on the occurrence and decision to enter or refusal to enter the country,” the SEF said in a statement.
The SEF’s clarification comes after several complaints of delays in border control at Lisbon airport this Sunday, with queues of more than five hours waiting. The situation, adds the note sent, “it ended up being regularized only in the middle of the afternoon” Sunday
The SEF adds that at Porto and Faro airports, “also subject to great pressure, given the number of passengers billed, there were no restrictions.” According to the data sent, This Saturday and Sunday more than 100,000 people were checked at the air borders: around 50 thousand in Lisbon, 36 thousand in Faro and 10 thousand in Porto.
In the case of the Lisbon airport, there were also “three arrests for the use of a fraudulent document, seven denials of entry, four requests for asylum at the border and the control of 16 transit passengers who were denied entry at other airports (namely, Cancun)”.
“It should be noted that the Contingency Plan for national airports -also implemented in previous years- began on June 2 and will only be fully operational on July 4. when will the reinforcement of the 238 SEF and PSP troops be completed, totaling 529 elements. Also this week, the aforementioned Contingency Plan foresees, as of June 15, an increase in internal reinforcement at the Lisbon and Porto Airports, by elements of other SEF units, in a growing commitment effort that is gradual until the month of July”, said the sent note.
Source: Observadora
