National directorate suggests complaints over social media were bogus
The national directorate of Portugal’s PSP police force has said today that all anomalies reported over social media by officers about deplorable accommodation conditions in military facilities for World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon have been “promptly resolved”.
In a statement, the directorate said that photographs of the alleged Armed Forces accommodation facilities “do not correspond to any facility being used by the police officers mobilised for WYD”.
In other words, the controversy has been ‘promptly resolved’ by dint of the fact that it did not exist.
The statement does say, nonetheless, that “although it was done before the start of WYD, a review of the facilities was determined to identify situations that effectively require intervention and may eventually be corrected“.
The PSP stressed that WYD is an event “of unprecedented size that required the mobilisation of a large number” of police officers.
“In view of the limitations on the availability of police accommodation and the prohibitive rental prices practised in Lisbon during WYD, the PSP requested the support of the armed forces in this matter.”
According to the statement, the accommodation provided has a maximum cost of €5 per day, to be borne by the police themselves “taking into account that they receive 100% of the legally provided daily allowance”.
Around 2,000 police officers from various PSP commands in the country have been transferred to Lisbon to reinforce the Lisbon Metropolitan Command, joining the approximately 7,000 men and women already part of the command.
These 2,000 officers are being housed in PSP housing and armed forces facilities.
On Monday, National Police Union Sinapol denounced what it described as “deplorable conditions” in which the PSP officers travelling to Lisbon for WYD were installed.
“We have received some reports, including some images. We are still in the processing phase, identifying which places do not have the ideal conditions, but they are strong images, in deplorable conditions and worthy of the Third World,” Sinapol leader Tiago Fernandes told reporters.
Today, Correio da Manhã tabloid refers to “inhuman conditions” in the Amadora military academy, where mattresses provided “would be rejected by a homeless person”.
It would now appear that this was all ‘fake news’, or at very least an over-exaggeration.
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
