The General Inspectorate of Internal Administration warns of the “potential risk factors” that still exist in the SEF facilities at Lisbon airport, advocating a commitment to human rights, first aid and languages ​​for those who work in these places .

The SEF must focus on a growing demand for specialized knowledge in the area of ​​human rights, first aid and command of foreign languages ​​for the elements that guarantee the security of the Temporary Installation Center (CIT) and the Space Equivalent to a Installation Center Temporary (EECIT) ”, indicates the General Inspectorate of Internal Administration (IGAI) in the report on the unannounced inspections of the security forces and services carried out in 2021.

That body that supervises the activity of the police also considers that the direction of the Immigration and Border Service “should never do without having permanent elements of its inspectorate in the CIT and EECIT.”

In the report, IGAI also points out that “there remain risk factors in the Lisbon airport EECIT that go through suspension points, blunt, sharp or piercing surfaces“.

The only CIT, a place of reception for foreigners for humanitarian or security reasons, existing in Portugal is in Porto, installed in the Santos António Housing Unit (UHST), with the remaining SEF spaces installed in Portuguese airports called EECIT.

The Espaço Equipado a a Temporary Installation Center in Lisbon reopened its doors in August 2020 after being closed for restructuring works. The EECIT was closed days after a Ukrainian citizen was murdered in this space by three elements of the SEF, already sentenced to between seven and nine years in prison for the death of Ihor Homenyuk.

How the autopsy and an anonymous complaint revealed the murder of Ihor Homeniuk at the Lisbon airport

The IGAI explains that, last year, it paid more attention to the Lisbon airport EECIT, where it carried out two inspection visits, in addition to the actions it carried out there within the framework of the monitoring carried out there.

In the report, that body led by Judge Anabela Cabral Ferreira highlights that “among the risk factors” in that space of the SEF in Lisbon, the most important are the locks installed on doors to individual roomsthe false ceiling and the non-existence of a call device.

The locks installed on the doors of the individual rooms were potential suspension points and, at the same time, potentially blunt surfaces and had a hidden security mechanism that, activated by a traditional key, allowed, from the outside, to unlock the lock and open the door, the The ceiling since EECIT was of the false ceiling type, made up of mobile metal plates, formed by a load-bearing structure of metal profile, suspended from the structure of the building, having potential suspension points and the rooms were not equipped with a call device ”, reads the document referring to 2021, but just published now.

The IGAI draws attention to the “very little that has changed in the existing installed receiving capacity since 1997”, despite the “numerous declarations of intent made”.

From 2006 until today, there has only been, on the one hand, a single CIT worthy of the name and, on the other hand, a complex legal framework that has only changed residually, when the migratory reality itself has changed significantly”, he maintains. that body supervised by the Ministry of Internal Governance.

The IGAI indicates that the inspections of the CIT and the EECIT had as their main objective the exercise of control over reception conditions for foreignersfor humanitarian or security reasons, and the control of the legality of police action regarding the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens.

Many PSP and GNR subunits without means to guarantee “minimum services”

Many posts and police stations, especially the subunits of the GNR, also do not have the means to guarantee “the provision of minimum services”, a patrol for the street and another for the police offices. The report points out that “the fact that the police mission of preventing and combating crime and providing proximity and assistance to populations assumes a permanent and uninterrupted nature, requires a large number of human resources to guarantee the provision of minimum servicesunderstood as the availability of at least one patrol service in the area of ​​territorial competence of each police subunit”.

But to keep a territorial post or a police station operationally active, it is necessary for this subunit to have internal service human resources, that is, to attend to the pieces that go to the police establishment, make the security of the facilities, guarantee the support and maintain the link and communication with the upper echelon. And it seems that there are no means in many subunits, especially the GNR, for such tasks”, underlines the IGAI.

Therefore, it is recommended that the General Command of the National Republican Guard and the National Directorate of the Public Security Police carry out “deficiency correction works” in the existing detention areas in the respective subunits.”

According to the IGAI, the PSP police stations and the GNR posts visited by the inspectors of this body presented, “a very significant number, inaccuracies with respect to what is established in the Regulation of Material Conditions of Detention in Police Establishments.”

The IGAI points out that the inaccuracies found presented problems “susceptible to facilitating the occurrence of personal accidents or acts against the physical integrity or life of detainees, within the scope of their own powers and the requirements of the regulations to which they are bound. . ” ”

The reality observed in the GNR and in the PSP, in terms of places of detention, is substantially identical, but it cannot fail to be worrying for both security forces in terms of this parameter, which is why it is an issue that deserves more attention. attention. when remodeling works or in new constructions are carried out, and the regulation established in the regulation approved by the Government in 2015 must always be present, ”says the document.

This body supervised by the Ministry of the Interior also establishes that the PSP and the GNR must promote the creation of a “victim assistance room” in police stations and positions of territorial competence, respecting the regulation of material conditions of the victim attention rooms in police establishments approved in 2022 by the guardianship.

The IGAI also believes that these two security forces should work for the improvement of the restoration works of the premises that are in a poor state of conservation, as well as “improving the general conditions of the spaces intended for customer service, favoring personalized attention and guaranteeing privacy at the service of the user”.

Last year, the IGAI carried out 57 unannounced inspection actions at a subdetachment and 16 territorial posts of the GNR, 33 police stations of the PSP and seven temporary installation centers of the SEF or similar spaces, corresponding to 23 inspection processes.