Authorities focus on “inspecting commercial establishments and people”
PSP public security police is leading a major operation in Lisbon’s Santa Maria Maior parish – more precisely the Martim Moniz area – which has been transformed in recent years by the enormous number of shops and establishments run by immigrants.
The focus of the operation is to “inspect commercial establishments and people”, checking for their ‘legality on national territory’.
PSP agents are working in collaboration with ASAE – the Food and Economic Safety Authority – Tax and Customs Authority AT, Working Conditions Authority ACT and Social Security.
“In this operation, the PSP is involving several departments, namely the Criminal Investigation Division, the Public Transport Security Division, the Traffic Division, the Private Security Unit, the Foreigners and Border Control Unit, the Rapid Intervention Teams, the Prevention and Immediate Reaction Teams, as well as the Special Police Unit,” the police force has said in a statement.
The Santa Maria Maior parish is one that has undergone so many changes in recent years that it has been likened to a ‘ghetto’, in which the number of immigrants trying to access local places of worship is so intense, that throngs end up praying in the streets – a situation so alien to traditional life in Lisbon as to appear practically surreal. The parish has equally been assailed by a wave of insecurity.
Reporting on the crackdown, SIC Notícias has posted its story on social media, to which hundreds of people have responded, welcoming the operation and saying it should be extended to other parts of the country. “Finally they are waking up…” writes one commentator, while another says: “Please make these daily, surprise, and across Sintra which is in a terrible state: Reboleira, Damaia, Amadora, Queluz, Monte Abraão, Cacém and beyond!”
Source material: LUSA/ SIC Notícias
