Archives: Situation Reports

Portugal safety and security Report Wednesday 21^st September 2022

If ever there was an apt reminder of the need for beach safety, this was certainly realised last weekend when a total of 17 swimmers were rescued from the sea at Mira beach in Coimbra. Sea conditions were poor at the time.

So far this year there have been over 110 drownings in Portugal, the highest for 5 years with still three months to go. We have now come to the end of the bathing season on the mainland and most beaches are without lifeguards.

In the case of Mira beach most of those rescued were reported as foreigners, although it is not clear if they were tourists or residents.

We repeat the advice we have previously given on this topic and that is to enjoy the beach but at the same time take care when entering the water, having regards to sea conditions. Be particularly aware of the presence of rip currents, as well as when suddenly jumping into cold water, the possibility of not only experiencing a cold ‘shock,’ but also developing hypothermia.

Be aware that the sudden shock of the cold water can quickly impact your breathing, your heart rate and your blood pressure enough so that it can be life-threatening. You are then at a greater risk of drowning. Gasping for breath and a sudden spike in your heart/blood pressure can cause an immediate panic/stress for the swimmer, which impairs clear thinking and decision making during a life-threatening situation.

In another beach related incident this time in Viana do Castelo,  a 3 year old child “was left by the parents sitting on the sand, next to the water, while they went swimming”, having shortly afterwards “found her lying on the sand, possibly after being hit by a wave”. After being assisted at the scene, she was taken “as a precaution” to Viana do Castelo Hospital, confirming that the “child is fine. Parents should not need reminding how to look after their children – it should be common sense.

On Monday the hacker group Ragnar Locker, responsible for the computer attack on TAP at the end of last month, claimed to have published personal data of 1.5 million airline customers. This Monday 19th September 2022, a document with 581 gigabytes of information was released on the Dark Web. The data includes names, addresses, mobile phone numbers of customers, as well as confidential agreements and professional identity cards and information about incidents during operations.

According to the newspaper Expresso, TAP did not give in to the blackmail of the group of hackers, who say they continue to have access to the airline’s computer systems.

We recommend that TAP customers change their passwords and ensure strong passwords are used and that the dame password is not used on any other accounts especially bank accounts.

The Minister of Internal Administration announced yesterday that crime is decreasing this year compared to 2019, a period before the covid-19 pandemic marked by confinement, but “the intensity of violence is increasing that requires attention”. He said that the Government created the Commission for the Integrated Analysis of Juvenile Delinquency and Crime and the Public Security Police is developing, on its own initiative, a set of interventions, namely special operations in the most crowded places at night.

Monitoring crime in Portugal over the last 11 years, this comes as no surprise given the crime reports released by the police more recently. It is not the numbers that are increasing but the level of violence used. It is important that this is tackled especially late night violence seen in some of the larger cities.

With that please have a safe week. From our team at Safe Communities Portugal.

News

71-year-old pickpocket “earned” 10,000 euros since June

The Lisbon PSP detained a 71-year-old pickpocket for crimes of aggravated theft on buses, trams and trains. The man, already with previous convictions, was in preventive detention.

It selected victims who travelled on public transport in Lisbon and Porto. He used his advanced age to go unnoticed and followed them. Then, he stole their belongings “with great art and cunning from years of acquired criminal knowledge”, describes the PSP.

In 2019, the elderly man had already been investigated and detained in the city of Porto for crimes of the same nature. He was then sentenced to one year and two months in prison suspended for the same period.

In July, investigators from the Lisbon PSP realized that the man had returned to thefts inside buses, trams and trains between Lisbon and Porto.

The PSP team specially created and specialized for this type of crime set up a concerted action and put several investigators on the ground. On September 12, they managed to arrest the suspect, in the act of committing a crime, on Avenida 24 de Julho. Inside tram 15, he had stolen a wallet with money and documents from the inside of the pocket of a Scottish tourist’s shorts. The belongings were recovered and returned to the owner.

After the arrest, a search was carried out in the pension where the detainee was staying, and 1490 euros were seized, two stolen mobile phones – one of them in the metro, in Porto – and gold items worth 4500 euros, purchased with bank cards stolen from the victims, information that may still relate the defendant to other crimes.

However, it was possible to correlate it with 10 more qualified thefts with consistent and solid evidence of its authorship. His activity since June has earned him around 10 thousand euros in illicit income, estimates the PSP.

Since he had dual nationality from Portugal and a South American country, the suspect still travelled between European countries, where he also has criminal references, and practiced other thefts.

The Lisbon Criminal Investigation Judge, to whom the detainee was presented for the first interrogation, decreed that he should await trial in Preventive Prison.

Government will invest about €2 million in vehicles for the PSP and GNR proximity (community patrol) programs

 Lisbon, Sep 20, 2022 (Lusa) – The Government plans to invest around two million euros in vehicles “specifically intended for the PSP and GNR proximity programs”, namely Escola Segura, the Minister of Internal Administration announced today.

In the opening session of a seminar organized by the Public Security Police on the 30 years of existence of the Escola Segura program in Portugal, José Luís Carneiro said that this program continues to play a “very relevant role and requires permanent investment, whether in people, in their training, or in the means of work, with a view to improving the ability to intervene”.

“Within the scope of the Integrated Urban Security Strategy, on which we have been working, and which will very soon be put up for public discussion, the Escola Segura program will assume particular centrality. It is a new approach to urban security, based on the principles of prevention, proximity to the citizen, the promotion of local partnerships, the sense of opportunity for evaluation and intervention and the need to promote integration and interconnection between the different intervention programs and instruments on reality”, he explained.

In this sense, the minister advanced that the specific training of police officers assigned to proximity programs will be reinforced and that an investment of around two million euros is planned in vehicles specifically intended for proximity programs for the PSP and GNR, within the scope of programming, investments in the modernization and operation of security forces and services.

According to José Luís Carneiro, the PSP and GNR committed, in the last school year, more than 700 police officers and guards, who carried out 35,808 awareness-raising actions and 204 demonstrations of means, in addition to many thousands of hours dedicated to patrolling and policing the surroundings of school spaces.

The official said that in the last school year there was a decrease in criminal occurrences, with the majority of participations in the school environment related to situations of injuries or threats and offenses to physical integrity.

“Although the provisional crime numbers in 2022, when compared to 2019 – because the years 2020 and 2021 were atypical years, given the confinement – do not show, in general, worrying developments, it is on these crimes, demonstrative of greater violence, that we focus our concern,” he said.

José Luís Carneiro noted that after the pandemic there was “a tendency towards the emergence of behaviours of greater conflict, especially among young people, who go to nightclubs”, therefore, “a careful analysis and reflection” is necessary.

“It is essential that we study and understand this problem. The different dimensions associated with violence, criminality and juvenile delinquency must be worked on in an integrated and sustained way, so that we can understand, upstream, the problems and seek to find solutions and act on the causes”, he stressed.

As an example, the minister reported on the creation of the Commission for the Integrated Analysis of Juvenile Delinquency and Violent Crime, which has already presented guidelines and recommendations to the Government and which will be included in the Integrated Strategy for Urban Security.

Portugal Situation Report Wednesday 14^th September 2022

Good morning – As forecast there has been a dramatic change in weather with the focus being on tropical storms. This is the tropical storm season so these are expected and we will have to wait and see how many there will be and how many reach the Portugal mainland as “Hurricanes”. Daniel decreased in intensity considerably as it moved closer to Portugal and the affects were, with one or two exceptions, little more than from a normal winter storm.

The main areas affected by the rain and winds were in the centre and the north of the mainland, and although there were over 700 occurrences report to the ANEPC from midnight to 1600 hrs yesterday, most were relatively minor. One exception was, however, in Sameiro parish, Manteigas municipality Guarda District, where there was moderate damage to property and vehicles.  This will do little, however, to ease the drought situation, especially in the south of the country.

Hurricanes are different matters and as we have seen in the past have caused extensive damage and pose considerable risk to public safety when they hit populated areas. Luckily a full force Hurricane hitting the mainland is rare and most loose intensity beforehand, as they reach cooler waters.

Such storms if coinciding with ongoing wildfires present particular risks. Starting on 15 October 2017, winds from post-tropical cyclone Ophelia fanned wildfires in both Portugal and Spain. The wildfires have claimed the lives of at least 49 individuals, including 45 in Portugal and four in Spain, and dozens more were injured. In Portugal, more than 4,000 firefighters battled around 150 fires. The US National Hurricane Centre’s Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Ophelia makes no mention of the fires, thus the associated fatalities are not included as part of the storm total.

Cyclone Vince from 8-11 October 2005 was the first known tropical cyclone to reach the Iberian Peninsula. Hurricane Leslie (2018) and Subtropical Storm Alpha (2020) are two more recent examples of tropical-like cyclones that impacted the Iberian Peninsula.

Leslie made landfall in the central region of Portugal, resulting in extensive material damage in Figueira da Foz, and placed thirteen districts under red warning due to strong winds and waves. It was considered the biggest storm to hit Portugal since 1842.

The Azores is more exposed, but fortunately in this case the trajectory of Hurricane Danielle meant that it did hit the archipelago – unlike Hurricane Lorenzo in September 2019 which caused extensive damage.

It is therefore important to be prepared. For this reason we have developed a page on our website which is based on government information on tropical cyclones, how to be prepared and precautions to take.  Basic advice is to follow and study the evolution of a cyclone/hurricane through weather reports. Usually there is plenty of warning, although they can change course at the last minute. This can be downloaded here.

https://www.safecommunitiesportugal.com/find-information/environment-and-weather/cyclones/

At this time of the year we are moving from fires to possible floods. One potential danger is the impact of heavy rain on locations that are downhill and downstream from burned areas and are therefore highly susceptible to Flash Flooding and Debris Flows, especially in, and near, steep terrain.

We published an awareness post about this on Monday on our Facebook page and the following, day the President of Camara Municipal de Manteigas, gave the following statement, accompanied by photographs, of the considerable damaged caused by flash floods and landslips in the municipality overnight.

Nothing can be done to prevent the rain but knowing your local area and possible vulnerable points in such storms, and therefore being prepared, can do much in reducing casualties and even damage to property.

Our team wishes you a Safe week ahead

News

Pedrógão Grande fires trial comes to an end with all defendants acquitted

The Leiria Court sought to find responsibility for the deaths and injuries of the June 2017 fire.

Despite the prosecution’s accusation, the court found that there was no link between the defendants’ actions and/or omissions and the unique phenomenon that happened and caused the deaths in the 2017 fire.

The panel of judges looked at the disorganized forestland utilization and at the weather factors, concluding: “these fatalities happened and would happen”, regardless of the actions of mayors, firefighters and involved companies employees. They would happen regardless of the existence or not of the fuel management lane on national road 236, according to the panel of judges.

The Court found that at the time of the fires, “the municipality of Pedrógão Grande comprised 72% of its area with dense continuous forest areas, essentially consisting of maritime pine, eucalyptus and acacia, with high fuel load and highly flammable”.

According to the court, “between 8:00 pm and 8:20 pm on June 17, 2017, in the area of Estrada Nacional (EN) 236-1, which connects Castanheira de Pera to Figueiró dos Vinhos, a convective column of the fire, ‘a downburst’, fell vertically towards the ground, from a height of about 13 kms. This resulted in a ‘rain’ of projections and generated wind of great intensity carrying particles of fire and incandescent material, which after hitting the ground, blew radially in all directions, with speeds of the order of 100 to 130 km/h”.

The judicial magistrates considered that this situation presented “fire intensity values (radiation) in the order of 60,000” kilovolts/meter, in addition to the flame length of up to 80 meters, with temperatures in the order of 900 to 1,200 degrees Celsius, and dense smoke that nullified visibility.

The court clarified that “the formation and subsequent fall of the convective column/’downburst’ described above is an extreme, rare and unpredictable pyro-meteorological phenomenon, and it was the first time that such a phenomenon was recorded in Portugal and throughout the European continent.

The defendants were the commander of the Volunteer Firefighters of Pedrógão Grande, Augusto Arnaut, then responsible for rescue operations, two employees of the former EDP Distribuição, José Geria and Casimiro Pedro, and three workers from Ascendi (Rogério Mota, José Revés and Ugo Berardinelli). Also the former mayors of Castanheira de Pera and Pedrógão Grande, Fernando Lopes and Valdemar Alves, respectively. And the mayor of Figueiró dos Vinhos, Jorge Abreu, as well as the former vice-mayor of Pedrógão Grande José Graça and the then responsible for the Forestry Office of this municipality, Margarida Gonçalves, were also among the defendants.

At issue in this trial were criminal charges of criminally negligent homicide and negligent offence against physical integrity.

More than 300 commanders, command elements and association leaders of Portuguese firefighters were present at the entrance of the court this morning to support Commander Augusto Arnaut of the Pedrógão Grande firefighters, who was one of the defendants in this case. 

PSP recorded about 2,300 criminal incidents in schools in the last school year

Lisbon, Sep 13, 2022 (Lusa) – The PSP recorded around 3,300 occurrences in schools, 2,300 of which were criminal, during the last school year, an increase compared to the last two years, marked by confinements resulting from the covid-19 pandemic, the PSP reported today.

Data from the Public Security Police were released on the day the 2022/2023 school year begins and on which the PSP guarantees that it will dedicate “special attention” to the safety of the 3,100 schools, involving a total of 150,000 teachers and non-teaching staff and more than 900,000 students, in its area of responsibility.

The figures are  ​​lower than those of the last school years before the beginning of the pandemic, in 2019.

The PSP underlines that within the scope of Escola Segura, which this year completes 30 years of existence, special attention is paid to the surroundings of schools.

In addition to the Escola Segura teams, with police officers specifically trained to carry out proximity policing in a school environment, the PSP mobilizes and complements its activity with other operational skills, such as auto policing teams, traffic inspection and road safety and criminal investigation, according to that police.

The PSP specifies that these teams prioritize “visibility and proximity”, “prevention of criminal offenses” and “information and awareness of the school community, through group interactions in the school environment”.

In each academic year, the PSP carries out around 13,500 awareness-raising and crime prevention actions, covering around 400,000 students from the different levels of public and private non-university education.

The PSP stresses that the challenges of the school year that begins today are to reinforce the behaviour of drivers and pedestrians, fully resume information and awareness actions for the school community, continue to support the school community in detecting signs of victimization (both in physical and virtual), encourage mediate reporting to the PSP for immediate verification and maintain the ability to identify cyberbullying situations as early as possible.

The PSP also provides an email address Escolasegura@psp.pt for reporting crimes and clarifying issues related to safety in schools.

Slavery

50 million people worldwide in modern slavery

The United Nations says there are almost 28 million slaves worldwide and of these, more than three million are children. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the number of people forced to work has increased by 10% in the last four years.

In 2022, according to the United Nations, there are 2 7.6 million people in slavery around the world.

According to the same source, this number has increased significantly over the last few years, and, in the last four years alone, it has increased by 10%. Of these millions of people who are forced to work without any dignity, 3.3 million are children.

These figures now published raise serious concerns among world entities, which point to extreme poverty, wars, climate change and the pandemic as the main causes of this global scourge.

“We know we have to protect people from the vulnerabilities that are at the heart of forced labour. We have to improve recruitment practices, so they are fair and ethical. We have to strengthen labour inspection and law enforcement. All these things, we know what works, we’re just not doing it enough,” said Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

According to the ILO, the vast majority of situations currently taking place in the richest countries on the planet, such as Dubai and China. The country on the Arabian Peninsula has been the subject of intense scrutiny due to the situations reported by several workers involved in the construction work of the stadiums that will be used in the Football World Cup.

Portugal Situation Report Wednesday 7^th September 2022

Good morning – what a difference the weather makes! Due the rain showers and high humidity over the last few days there has been a vast decrease in the number of rural fires, to a point whereby yesterday at 0745 hrs there only 80 operatives deployed for the entire region tackling 3 fires under conclusion. This had gown to just over one hundred operatives by around mid-day, but with no active fires or fires under resolution.

Although fires are mainly of human cause, the weather conditions play a major part on how intense they may become and spread.

Instead of fires attention is beginning to turn to tropical storms particularly those originating in the north Atlantic. You may recall that around 5 weeks ago when we took the decision to form a Safe Communities Northern Portugal Group, one reason was of concerns over a possible active cyclone season and the effects these have had in the past, in the centre and north of the mainland.

Hurricane Danielle is a very good example of how such storms behave, in many ways similar to the typhoons we encountered when I lived and worked in Hong Kong. Although technology has improved on the tracking and forecasting of these, their behaviour remains the same. The storms increase and decrease in intensity, and can change direction dramatically. A few days ago a simulation showed that it could affect Portugal mainland and then literally a few hours later it was reported that it was heading in a more north easterly direction, only to find yesterday morning there was a possibility that it could change direction yet again to a south easterly course towards the mainland. Anyway we monitor these closely and if it becomes a potential threat, then we will issue preparedness advice.

Notwithstanding these storms, the north of the country has experienced a few showers, but generally less than what was forecast. Without rain in some places for several months roads can be slippery so please take that into account, when driving in wet weather.  It is a good time of the year to check and ensure that your windscreen wiper blades are in good condition, as the rubber can harden over several months exposed to the sun. Ensure that your windscreen washers are topped up and that tyres are properly inflated and in good condition.

In case you missed our Facebook post yesterday, a reminder concerning action to take in case of poisoning. We live surrounded by possible toxins that we constantly use in our homes, garages, factories and in the countryside. When poisoning happens we need to know how to act and obtain help quickly.

The INEM Anti Poison Information Centre has decades of experience on this subject. This unit also gives expert advice on action to take in the case of animal poisoning as we. Consult INEM for advice and always have the number of INEM Anti-poison Information Centre (CIAV) at hand: 800 250 250.

Another important service is the SNS 24 Psychological Counselling Line which answered more than 173,000 calls in two and a half years, of which more than 10,800 were from health professionals, the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS) reported this Sunday.

Created in the midst of a pandemic, on April 1, 2020, through a partnership between SPMS, EPE, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Order of Portuguese Psychologists, it has been a voice of support for those who seek it in difficult times. According to SPMS, this year alone, [the Line] has already exceeded 46,000 calls. The SNS 24 Psychological Counselling Line now has a service available in English, and since last April 20, it has already answered about 2,500 calls.

Lastly another services this time from Safe Communities Portugal. This is the Emergency Contacts Poster for your home in case you need to summon emergency assistance.  Dealing with a real emergency, such as an approach of a rural fire, serious health incident involving a loved one can be very stressful. Having information and essential contact details immediately available will help you in summoning help, and avoid wasting time in try to find such information at this critical time.

It is on our website. Just print from the link below, fill in in and place in a conspicuous place in your home, inside entrance doors for instance.

https://www.safecommunitiesportugal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Emergency-Information-and-Contacts-BW-.pdf

With that our team, Mike, Chris, Daniel, Susan and myself who prepare these weekly bulletins wish you a Safe week

News

Two men accused of war crimes for the first time in Portugal

Two men are charged in court with war crimes against people. This case is the first in Portugal. The Public Ministry indicted the two men of Iraqi nationality, detained in 2021 on suspicion of terrorist links to Daesh.

The brothers Yasser, 32 years old, and Ammar, 34 years old, have lived in Portugal since 2017. The youngest came to work in a restaurant in Lisbon that, in 2018, was visited by the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic.

The Iraqis were detained after three years of investigations on suspicion of being linked to a possible terrorist attack in a European country.

Until the arrest, the authorities found no evidence that the suspects were planning a crime in Portugal. However, they will be linked to various actions carried out by Daesh in Iraq, in the city of Mosul, where they were in 2016.

The two suspects are accused of committing crimes of membership of a terrorist organization, war crimes against people and crimes of resistance and coercion against an employee. 

Portuguese Parliament debates and votes on the 16th to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO

The Assembly of the Republic will debate and vote on the 16th of September on the Government’s proposed resolutions aimed at ratifying the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, already approved by the Allies.

The date was announced by the spokeswoman for the conference of leaders, the socialist Maria da Luz Rosinha, who was speaking to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic, in Lisbon.

The Government’s proposed resolutions on the subject – approved by the Council of Ministers on 14 July – were submitted to the Assembly of the Republic on 19 July, according to the parliament’s website, having been sent to the parliamentary committees on Foreign Affairs and Communities. Portuguese and National Defence.

Since the last plenary session before the parliamentary vacation was on 21 July, the proposed resolutions in question were sent to September.

In both texts – one dedicated to Sweden, the other to Finland -, the Government reproduces the same arguments as to the reasons that justify the accession of the two countries to the Atlantic Alliance.

According to the executive, led by the PS, both Finland and Sweden meet “currently the necessary conditions for joining NATO, as a result of the cooperation carried out in several domains, framed by the parameters defined by the Alliance”.

The executive emphasizes that the accession of two Member States of the European Union (EU) to NATO “will contribute to the strengthening of the complementary relationship, in the field of security and defence, between the two organizations, in scrupulous respect for the principles enshrined in the respective treaties”.

Portuguese are the ones who most support the EU’s reaction to the Russian invasion

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LUSA

Portuguese are the ones who most support the EU’s reaction to the Russian invasion

Portugal is the member state that most supports the European Union’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with 78 percent of respondents saying they are satisfied, against 57 percent of the EU average, reveals a European Commission survey.

According to the «Eurobarometer» of the summer of 2022, released today by the EU executive, a majority of EU citizens are satisfied with the bloc’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (57%, of which 11% are “very satisfied” ), but support varies from 78% in Portugal and Poland, to 36% in Estonia and 38% in Greece.

Portugal is the country where support for the EU’s response is greatest, as 78% of respondents say they are satisfied and only 15% express dissatisfaction (and 07% do not know or do not respond). In Poland, 78% also support the European bloc’s reaction, but 20% say they are dissatisfied (and only 02% do not respond).

When specifically asked about the EU’s responses in several areas, the greatest support is related to humanitarian action, which deserves the approval of 92% of European citizens – 98% in Portugal, once again the highest value among the 27 States, followed by the reception of people fleeing the war (90% in the community average, 97% in Portugal).

Regarding the economic sanctions adopted by the EU against Russia, they deserve the support of 78% of Europeans, with Portugal once again being the Member State where the measure receives the most support (94%), while the measure that gathers the least consensus is that of purchase and delivery of military equipment to Ukraine, ‘applauded’ by 68% of European citizens, but 86% of Portuguese.

When asked about the response of their respective national governments to Russian military aggression against Ukraine, 55% of citizens surveyed in the 27 Member States said they were satisfied, against 40% of dissatisfied.

In this case, Portugal is the fourth EU country where there is greater support for the national reaction (78% say they are satisfied), behind Finland (88%), Ireland and Denmark (both with 81%), while the countries where least supported are Greece and Bulgaria, with only 34% favourable opinions in both cases.

Despite strong support for the EU’s response to the war in Ukraine, 96% of Portuguese consider that the conflict had serious economic consequences for the country, the third highest figure in the EU (which averages 88%), and 85% say that have personally felt serious consequences at the economic level, also the third highest figure, and well above the Community average of 62%.

The survey, whose first results were published today, was conducted between 17 June and 17 July, with more than 26 thousand citizens, with 1,009 people surveyed in Portugal by Marktest.