The Portuguese consulate and the air carrier TAP are the main targets of the Portuguese complaints heard by Lusa.
Isilda Reis, a Portuguese-Angolan who is looking for a flight to return with her parents, aged 75 and 72, because they are more vulnerable to Covid-19, said that it has been very difficult to contact these entities by phone or email.
The businesswoman said she was concerned about the possibility of a rapid spread of the virus in Angola, a country with a very fragile health system: "that is why I decided to return, I am afraid of what might happen".
Isilda Reis said she signed up for the consulate's website through a link provided to support Portuguese who want to return and sent the medical report on the parents, showing that they are in a group at risk.
She also tried to contact TAP in various ways and ended up going to the company's office in Luanda on Tuesday to get answers.
"But we were left out. They read a list and only let in people whose name was on that list, which we don't even know how it was done," he said.
The Luso-Angolan said she went to the TAP store again this Wednesday, but it was closed. She contacted a travel agency that plans to fly Portuguese from Luanda on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but complains that prices, which are around 1,200 euros, are too high.
"I didn't want to travel for free, but I think flights should be more affordable," she commented.
Another businessman who also wants to return to Portugal criticises that the situation is serving to do business.
"When you take advantage of it to do business at this time, it's shameful," Carlos Franco lamented, questioning why the consulate is sending Portuguese citizens to a travel agency when "TAP's planes are stopped".
Carlos Franco also said that since he registered at the consulate on 19 March, asking for support to return, he has received no reply.
"They send us a form to fill out via an automatic reply email and that's all. They don't answer", he said.
Carlos Franco also tried to go this Wednesday to TAP's office, but "it was closed".
The drinks entrepreneur wants to go to Portugal "to be with his family", showing concern for Covid-19: "if there are problems in Europe, there'll be a lot more here".
A citizen who is in Luanda on a tourist visa and wanted to return to Lisbon with his girlfriend, revealed this Wednesday that he tried several times to contact the consulate by phone, without success, the same happening with the attempts to send e-mail, successively returned.
Luís Simões, who has been travelling around the world for several years, arrived in Angola about two months ago with his girlfriend, of Indonesian nationality, who is waiting for a visa to travel to Portugal.
"I'm not going to risk buying a ticket and then not giving the visa [to my girlfriend]. If I can, we still have to arrange a flight," he said.
Another citizen complained in an email that Lusa had access to about the "inhuman conditions" to which the Portuguese community has been subjected, reporting that those interested in returning, who had filled out forms from the consulate and TAP, had to wait "crowded and unprotected" to find out if they could formalise the booking of their tickets from Portugal.
"TAP never answers phones. The consulate does not provide credible information, nor does it answer," he criticised, calling on "the competent bodies to make an inspection in order to investigate the abuses that have been committed.
The most recent information provided by the Consulate of Portugal in Luanda was released on Monday and stated that two flights were scheduled to return to Portugal - one departing this Wednesday at midnight and another on Saturday.
Other information that has been passed on to the Portuguese who requested support to return by the travel agency ISD Travel indicates that two more flights from Luanda to Portugal are planned, on Sunday and Monday, as soon as the Saturday flight is complete.
The Consulate General of Portugal in Luanda on Tuesday suspended the receipt of indefinite visa applications as part of the measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
TAP is also making a survey of passengers affected by the suspension of flights between Angola and Portugal, by filling out a form.
Lusa has contacted the office of the Secretary of State of the Communities, Berta Nunes, about these complaints, but has not yet received a reply.
