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Interior Minister Luís Neves announced on Friday that national airports will be reinforced with a further 340 Public Security Police (PSP) officers at the beginning of July, in order to streamline border control procedures.
“On 4 July we will deploy another 340 people, PSP officers who are currently receiving specific training for work at the borders. Lisbon alone will get 140, 100 will go to Porto, and then others to Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada,” the minister said, in comments captured by SIC (source in Portuguese).
His remarks come in the wake of bottlenecks recently reported at border control in some Portuguese airports, with Lisbon particularly affected.
These incidents have been linked by the government, among other factors, to the rollout in Portugal of the European Union’s Entry/Exit System (EES), which allows the registration of biometric data of nationals of third countries and the collection of information on their entries into and exits from the Schengen area, in the case of short stays of up to 90 days within a 180-day period.
This comes despite an official source at the European Commission, in a response sent to the Lusa news agency (source in Portuguese), having denied that the queues observed are in fact due to the entry into operation of this new system.
“The challenges faced in Portugal, including longer waiting times**, are not related to any problems** in the functioning of the Entry/Exit System,” the European Commission insisted, adding that it remains “in contact with Portugal on this matter” and “will continue to provide the necessary support” in this regard.
However, the interior minister added on Friday that there have been fewer problems at Portuguese airports in recent days.
“It is important to look at how operations have gone in recent days. Saturday, for instance, may have been the day of the year when the most passengers used Portuguese airports,” Luís Neves explained, about a situation which, in his view, “went very well”.
At a time of traditionally heavy tourist flows, with the summer months approaching, the Portuguese government had already announced last week that, almost with immediate effect, a further 48 PSP officers would be deployed to Lisbon airport, also because it handles the largest share of the country’s air traffic.
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