The Prime Minister expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of border control services due to long queues at airports and said that, if the situation continues, he is considering suspending the collection of biometric data.

"I do not hide that we [the Government] are dissatisfied with the response given by the border services at the airports, in particular, at Lisbon. We will take this effort to the end, to the limits, so that we can overcome the situation," said Luis Montenegro.

“We don’t want to jeopardise the country’s security, but we also don’t want to jeopardise the country’s economic activity,” stressed the official, who said he had received reports from “various economic agents bothered by this situation.”

Airport delays

Border control at Porto airport recorded waiting times exceeding two hours, the PSP admitted, while denying reports of six-hour waits.

The PSP said that the maximum waiting time on Sunday, 17 May, “with peak waiting times between 9 am and 12 pm, never exceeded 100 minutes in Faro, 110 minutes in Lisbon and 130 minutes in Porto.”

In a statement released, the PSP justifies the delays as due to technical and IT issues and to “a high number of passengers from outside the Schengen Area.”

The three airports processed approximately 69,000 passengers on flights arriving from outside the Schengen Area, the police noted.

Human resources reinforcements

Luís Montenegro assured that the Government is “making a huge investment from the point of view of reinforcing human resources.”

“Right now, around 300 people are graduating from a PSP course, specifically for functions related to border control. We are making a significant technological investment. We are complying with all the rules and obligations within our commitments in the Schengen area,” he stressed.

According to the Prime Minister, the Government “is centralising, or taking that path, with regard to maintenance mechanisms and, therefore, agility from the point of view of assistance to the equipment we have.”

“We are doing everything within our power to have greater response capacity,” he noted.