A technical difficulty in the border control system is causing “high waiting times” at Lisbon airport, which reached three hours on the morning of Tuesday, December 16, according to the PSP, which guarantees that it is working “at maximum capacity”.
An official source from the Public Security Police told Lusa that “there is a technical difficulty in the border control system”, which is not the responsibility of the PSP, and has been causing queues at Lisbon airport since Monday, which reached a maximum waiting time of over three hours.
Contacted by Lusa, the ANA Aeroportos de Portugal confirmed “high waiting times at border control at Humberto Delgado Airport, reaching a maximum of three hours today”.
ANA assured that “it has collaborated with the authorities responsible for border control and supported passengers, to mitigate, within its power, the regrettable constraints, namely through the distribution of water and food”.
The PSP also states that it is at Lisbon airport at “maximum capacity”, with all border posts occupied by police.
The new European border control system for non-EU citizens came into operation on October 12th in Portugal and other countries in the Schengen area and since then waiting times have worsened, especially at Lisbon airport, with passengers having to wait, sometimes for several hours.
This situation recently led the Government to create an emergency ‘task force’ to manage this crisis situation.
The Internal Security System (SSI) has already admitted that the Entry/Exit System (EES) could be suspended during Christmas to avoid queues at airports, a measure that has already been authorized by the European Commission, being a decision that “will be taken according to the information that arrives from Portuguese airports”.
The SSI assured that the decision whether or not to suspend the application of the EES will be taken “punctually and if necessary, after evaluating the situation at each airport and without compromising border security”.
“If there is no need to suspend the EES, it is a sign that there are no excessive waiting times to cross the border”, said that organization.
On Monday, refer to the SIC News reported “hundreds of suitcases” accumulated at Lisbon airport due to “delays in passport control”, where, according to the channel, waiting times exceeded five hours. The images that SIC had access to showed corridors full of suitcases, mainly from passengers coming from outside the Schengen area, according to the television station.
ANA Aeroportos confirmed to SIC that, yesterday, waiting times at border control reached up to three and a half hours at times, but an airport employee told the channel that the average waiting time was over five hours, a situation that led to the accumulation of suitcases.
It should be remembered that DN reported, on Monday, that a team of experts from the European Commission is in Lisbon, at Humberto Delgado airport and at the port’s cruise terminal, to assess security conditions and border control procedures.
The team sent by the European Commission, made up of around a dozen technical specialists in Schengen evaluation.
According to a clarification sent by the Internal Security System (SSI) to the DN, aspects such as the functioning of large-scale IT systems applicable within the scope of the Schengen acquis are being verified, in particular the Schengen Information System (SIS) and Sirene; border procedures (1st and 2nd line); human resources and training; and risk analysis.
The Minister of Internal Administration will be in parliament this Tuesday afternoon, at the request of the PS, to talk about the long queues at border control at Portuguese airports, the measures adopted and the deadlines expected for their resolution.