President of Portuguese Tourism stresses “problems entering country already exist”
President of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP) Francisco Calheiros is hugely concerned by the government announcement (yesterday) that citizens from outside the Schengen area who want to enter Portugal will have to undergo biometric and personal data checks, as “a fundamental element” for surveillance.
As Calheiros warns “there is no second chance to make a good first impression – and the first good impression is arriving at the airport…”
Even without biometric data checks, visitors to this country can be faced with exhausting queues.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the 7th Portuguese Tourism Summit at the National Palace of Mafra today, Francisco Calheiros said there have been “quite a few problems” already this year, with waiting times of over an hour for border crossings at airports.
“It’s not possible, for example, on a European flight from a non-Schengen country that takes two and a half hours to get here, for (passengers) to spend an hour and a half getting in,” he lamented – using really the wrong ‘word’, as it is absolutely possible to queue for an hour and a half after a short-haul flight to get through passport control in Portugal – as far too many travellers have already discovered.
Thus CTP means to keep on the government’s case to try and safeguard tourism.
Nonetheless, the new policy will be put into place: minister for the presidency António Leitão Amaro told journalists yesterday that this measure is part of a draft bill on border control, approved by the government, which will now be sent to parliament.
“We are regulating a new system for controlling exits and entries into Portuguese territory through the external borders,” he said explaining that citizens coming from outside the Schegen area will have to submit to the collection of biometric and personal data in order to enter Portugal.
“This is a fundamental element for us to have the right information for inspection and to guarantee the legality of entry into Portugal,” the minister went on.
Leitão Amaro added that this measure “is implying a strong technological investment in machines, equipment, people and also in the rules of entry“, stressing that the control will be “more effective, stronger on entries and exits” of citizens coming from outside the Schengen area.
“The government has always said that Portugal needs immigration, we have to integrate the immigrants we receive in an effective and humane way, but we also need immigration with active and regulated controls and it is because of this that today we have approved a draft bill that will enter parliament in the next few hours and which is already scheduled for debate in a fortnight’s time,” he said.
Immigrants aside, hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers, not least Britons, come into Portugal every year from non-Schengen destinations. They are, in the main, non-Schengen citizens. The last thing they need to hear is that border controls might become even more drawn-out and complicated than they already are.
Source material: LUSA
