Lisbon, Dec. 30, 2025 (Lusa) - The leader of the Police Professionals Trade Union Association (ASPP/PSP) said on Ruesday that he found the government's decision to reinforce Lisbon airport with GNR military personnel strange, given that the constraints at the borders are not due to a lack of personnel.
"I find it strange to be deploying GNR officers when [the situation] is not due to a lack of staff but to a lack of structural working conditions," Paulo Santos told Lusa, insisting on attributing responsibility to ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal, the manager Lisbon airport, for not having created conditions for a passenger flow that it already knew would exist.
The leader of ASPP/PSP also criticised the government for "once again whitewashing" the situation in which police officers perform duties at the airport, fearing that the GNR may, at a time of union struggle, be used as a "weapon" to show that another security force can take on responsibilities that currently belong to the PSP.
The Ministry of Internal Administration announced today that the European border control system for non-EU citizens will be suspended for three months at Lisbon airport. This infrastructure will be reinforced "immediately" with GNR military personnel with certified training in border control.
In a statement, the ministry also indicated that "the capacity of electronic and physical equipment for external border control will be increased by around 30% to the maximum supported by the current port infrastructure".
In a statement, the government justified the reinforcement of contingency measures at Lisbon airport as a response to "the worsening of constraints in the arrivals area" for non-European passengers from outside the Schengen area, due to the evolution of the European Union's new Entry/Exit System (EES).
The infrastructure had already been reinforced with 80 PSP agents during the Christmas and New Year period due to long waiting times.
The EES came into operation on 12 October in Portugal and the other Schengen countries, entering a second phase with the collection of biometric data on 10 December. With this suspension, the control of non-EU passengers returns to the old model, which involves reading the passport and, often, manually stamping it to record entry/exit, with officers checking the visitor's identity and length of stay.
In response to Lusa, the PSP, which in 2023 inherited passenger control at airport borders from the now defunct Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), stated that "it has been operating at virtually maximum capacity in border control" and pointed out that Lisbon airport management "only provides" 16 service counters in arrivals and 14 in departures, in addition to the “e-gates” (technological gates for biometric reading).
IB/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
