Lisbon, July 29, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's PSP (Public Security Police) and ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal (Airports of Portugal) are blaming each other for the delays in building a room at Lisbon airport for the judicial hearing of detainees at the border, without either saying when the space will open.
In March, the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) pointed to the “end of the first half of this year” for the opening of a room in the international area of Lisbon airport for the in-person hearing by a judge of foreign citizens detained at the border, a deadline the council was unable to meet.
“The completion of this project continues to depend on the finalisation of the necessary works, which the CSM does not oversee,” the judges’ governing body claimed on 23 July.
The following day, an official source from ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal, which manages Lisbon airport, told Lusa that the company had only authorised the PSP to carry out work on the space in question and that the company’s involvement in the process was limited to that authorisation.
When questioned by Lusa, the PSP countered that “the responsibility for making the space available and constructing it lies with ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal, and the security force will comment on this process only when it is its role to do so.”
“We can only say that, in March of this year, we issued our agreement regarding the proposed space,” it added.
According to the CSM, the intention to create the room remains, and the court will assign a judge from the Lisbon Minor Offences Court to it, the court with jurisdiction to decide on measures to apply to foreign citizens detained during border procedures.
In March, the CSM clarified that the measure is part of the work that the working group of this body and the United Nations Refugee Agency have developed to “implement solutions that strengthen the protection of human rights.”
Currently, the authorities hear foreigners detained at the border in person in only rare situations.
“The Portuguese State must ensure that it will hear all detainees in person, in order to observe their fundamental rights. To guarantee this, while respecting the legal and operational constraints on moving detainees to court, the State should create a space at the airport itself to conduct such hearings,” the judges’ management body explained at the time.
At present, the Lisbon Minor Offences Court operates exclusively at the Lisbon Justice Campus, about three kilometres from the airport.
IB/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
