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Transports

Foreigners prevented from entering Portugal at airports will have the right to a lawyer

The Portuguese State will guarantee legal assistance and advice from a lawyer to foreign citizens whose entry into Portugal has been refused in the five airports, according to a protocol signed this Wednesday.

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The cooperation protocol for legal assistance to foreign citizens signed at the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI), between the Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita, the Portuguese Minister of Justice, Francisca van Dunem, and the Portuguese Bar Association staff member, Luís Menezes Leitão.

According to the MAI, the protocol guarantees legal assistance from the Portuguese State to foreign citizens whose entry into national territory has been refused at the airports of Lisbon, Oporto, Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada, thus ensuring "full access to the law and to the courts for the defence of their legally protected rights and interests".

"We have to distinguish what are very diverse situations, what is legal migration that we all want to encourage, welcome and integrate, what is the search for asylum or international protection aimed at Portugal fleeing political persecution, religious or situations of war or environmental crisis and we have those who are victims of phenomena of trafficking in human beings, irregular immigration and criminal phenomena of a diverse nature," said Eduardo Cabrita at the signing ceremony.

The minister added that when these citizens arrive in Portugal by air, it is not known "what legal framework underlies a situation of admissibility to enter the country.

In this sense, the Portuguese ruler stressed that "access to the law is fundamental to all of them", and this partnership with the Portuguese Bar Association is "essential to the rule of law".

For Eduardo Cabrita, access to a lawyer is "just as important" as the medical and sanitary monitoring done in the centers of the Foreigners and Borders Service that there are airports by the Doctors of the World, as by the Ombudsman or the General Inspection of Internal Administration.

For her part, the Portuguese Minister of Justice stated that it was necessary to regularize the situation and guarantee that these citizens will be "effectively entitled in conditions analogous to those that access citizens legally residing in national territory.

Francisca van Dunem explained that these citizens already had access to the right in the past, "but in an absolutely irregular and case-by-case manner.

The Portuguese minister also said that this protocol will "standardize and give equal access to all," allowing these citizens when they arrive in the country to be on an equal footing with any citizen legally residing in Portugal.

The Portuguese Bar Association member considered it "very important that foreign citizens who arrive in the country in situations of extreme fragility can be protected, especially if there is a situation of refusal to enter Portuguese territory and have no one to turn to".

Luís Menezes Leitão recalled that in this context "there have already been deplorable situations in Portuguese airports", emphasizing that this protocol may serve to prevent them from being repeated.

He explained that the fees of the lawyers who provided this legal assistance will be borne by MAI, but in order to have the system of access to the right to operate it will be through the Ministry of Justice and the Institute of Financial Management and Justice Equipment through, which creates the scales and ensures the remuneration.

SEF's latest Immigration, Borders and Asylum report stated that almost 5,000 foreigners were prevented from entering Portugal in 2019, a 32.9 percent increase over 2018, and the majority occurred at air border crossings, particularly at Lisbon airport, where 4823 were refused entry (96.6 percent).

In 2019, 79.4 percent of refusals to enter were from Brazil (3965), followed by Angola (202), Guinea-Bissau (72) and Senegal (54).

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