Soldiers trained as border guards were sent to Lisbon airport to reduce waiting times after the European Entry Exit System (EES) digital border rollout was suspended last month due to security failures. On Tuesday, the Portugese government approved to station 24 members of the National Republican Guard in the arrivals area at Humberto Delgado Airport. It is not yet known how long the GNR soldiers will remain on duty.
The airport handles more than 35million passengers annually, making it Portugal’s busiest airport, a major European hub and the 12th largest in Europe by volume. It has already been supported with 80 Public Security Police (PSP) officers over the Christmas and New Year period as long queues of passengers were trying to enter the popular holiday destination.
According to Carlos Catanário, spokesman for the GNR, quoted by Lusa, the 24 soldiers will work in “flexible shifts”, made up of teams of 10 and a supervisor, and will be in the arrivals area to check documentation, Euronews reported.
The soldiers reportedly have certified training in border control and have received two days of administrative training from the PSP, the National Civil Aviation Authority and airport operator ANA.
It comes following the government’s decision to suspend the new EES for non-EU citizens for three months, to avoid longer waits at the airport.
The European Commission carried out an unannounced assessment of Lisbon airport between 15 and 17 December and concluded that there are “serious deficiencies” in border security control. Their warning led the government to adopt urgent measures, including the suspension of the EES.
The European Commission team detected poor quality of first and second line border controls, according to newspaper Diário de Notícias. They also warned of long queues and excessive waiting times, which reportedly reached seven hours.
Additionally, the experts who carried out the assessment mentioned that border controls were frequently being simplified without the EU Executive having been notified, leading to an “absence of exit controls at the Lisbon Airport border crossing point”.
