Lisbon is in urgent need of a Temporary Installation Center (CIT) that meets actual requirements, according to recommendations made since 2017 by the European Commission, stated inspector Ana Margarida Maia in the ISAP Global Report – Unannounced Inspections 2024, released today by Público and also reviewed by Lusa.
The Lisbon area currently has a single Space Equivalent to a Temporary Installation Center (EECIT), located at Humberto Delgado Airport, which according to the document, can accommodate 25 people, distributed across a female wing, a male wing, and three rooms for exceptional use.
Ana Margarida Maia noted that this capacity “is limited and inadequate for the number of individuals who, by law, cannot enter national territory and must remain in the International Zone of Lisbon Airport.”
Besides the EECIT at Humberto Delgado Airport, there are three other facilities in Portugal to house migrants who are barred entry or have expulsion orders: the EECITs at Porto and Faro airports and the Santo António Housing Unit (CIT) in Porto.
In 2024, the IGAI conducted unannounced visits to the EECITs in Lisbon and Porto, managed by the PSP.
“Observations made during ISAP inspections to these types of structures continue to highlight the need to revise the applicable legal framework for CITs and EECITs […] to modernize and adapt it in terms of installation capacity to the migratory reality that has changed significantly since 1994,” concluded the inspector.
Along with the EECITs in Lisbon and Porto, the IGAI inspected 69 GNR stations and PSP precincts last year in the districts of Aveiro, Beja, Braga, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Faro, Leiria, Setúbal, Porto, and Vila Real.
