Forget all the government announcements that it is getting to grips with border control issues at Lisbon Airport. It isn’t.
Yesterday, ‘Josefina’ was one of thousands of passengers crammed into the arrivals hall for hours, getting absolutely nowhere. According to reports, Josefina’s flight landed at 11.15 am yet she was still standing among fellow passengers at 17.40 pm – still waiting for her turn to be ‘processed’ as a non-EU arrival into Portugal.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã stresses that there were so many people crammed into the arrivals hall yesterday that ‘you could not actually talk of queues’: it was a melée of frustrated, exhausted travellers – many with young children, or health concerns that made hours and hours of standing a complete nightmare.
This has been going on for months. But now ‘a VIP’ has stepped into the picture to denounce the damage this will be doing the country’s top export: tourism.
In a letter addressed to the prime minister (who is technically ‘away on holiday until January 9’), Miguel Guedes de Sousa – the husband of businesswoman Paula Amorim (one of the richest women in Portugal and co-owner of the luxury brand in Comporta, JNcQuoi) says: “We cannot wait another day! This is the moment to demand direct leadership, state authority and immediate decision-making…”
As he explains, the bottlenecks leaving thousands to be treated like cattle in transport are indicative of “continuous operational collapse” bringing “immediate impact on the economy, the image of the country and in the confidence of those who visit and invest”.
Beyond the exhaustion of passengers, Guedes de Sousa highlights ‘economic operators on maximum alert (…) travel agencies in despair; hotels receiving cancellations, and restaurants and services losing clients’.
Portugal is seeing the “reputation it has constructed over the decades” crumbling, he warns.
Very possibly Miguel Guedes de Sousa had no idea that his letter to the PM would arrive just as the latter announced he was taking a short holiday.
Source: Correio da Manhã
