Ver Angola

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Dozens of passengers from Luanda refused to take covid-19 test at Lisbon airport

Dozens of passengers from Angola and Mozambique refused to take the covid-19 test when they landed at Lisbon airport. Passengers ended up entering Portugal without taking the test, as Portuguese law does not allow barring entry to nationals or legal residents of the country.

: Nelson Lourenço/Flickr
Nelson Lourenço/Flickr  

The case happened on Friday and Saturday with a flight from Luanda and one from Maputo. According to the newspaper Público, passengers refused to take the test, despite the Portuguese council of ministers' diploma establishing that all national and foreign citizens residing in Portugal who come from Brazil, Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) and the United States must submit a negative result to covid-19, and that result can be tested before citizens travel or after landing at the country's airport.

In the same newspaper, the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) did not reveal the right number of passengers who entered the country without having done any kind of test, explaining that they could not prohibit the entry of dozens of citizens because they were national citizens or had legal residence in Portugal.

SEF also revealed that what happened with these two flights was an exception to the rule, pointing out that on no other flight has episodes like: "On all other flights this has not happened".

When passengers refuse to take the test, SEF is obliged to identify them and then hand over a list of names to the Portuguese Health Directorate. The aim is to identify citizens more easily and thus be able to make an assessment of their health.

The public is also advancing that there have also been opposite situations: on Thursday another flight arrived in Lisbon from Luanda. Of the 96 passengers, only three refused to take the covid-19 test.

The problem here was not that the test had been carried out, but that about 70 passengers had not been informed by the airline that they needed to have the test done.

Some passengers were outraged at the situation because, as there is only one employee working in the airport laboratory, the waiting time for the test was extended. Others had to enlist the help of relatives to pay for the test, which cost 100 euros.

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