"Lisbon urgently needs a CIT [Temporary Installation Center] capable of meeting real needs, as recommended by the European Commission since 2017," emphasizes inspector Ana Margarida Maia in the ISAP Global Report - Unannounced Inspections 2024, published by the newspaper Público and also consulted by Lusa.

The Lisbon region has a single Space Equivalent to a Temporary Installation Center (EECIT), which operates at Humberto Delgado Airport and which, according to the document, has a capacity for 25 citizens, distributed across a female wing, a male wing, and three rooms for exceptional use.

For Ana Margarida Maia, this capacity "is limited and inadequate for the number of citizens who, by law, cannot enter the country and must remain in the International Zone of Lisbon Airport."

In addition to the EECIT at Humberto Delgado Airport, there are three other facilities in Portugal to accommodate migrants who have been barred or have been ordered expelled: the EECITs at Porto and Faro airports and the Santo António Housing Unit (CIT) in Porto.

In 2024, the IGAI made an unannounced visit to the EECITs in Lisbon and Porto, managed by the PSP.

"From the observations made during the ISAPs conducted at these types of facilities, the need to review the legal framework applicable to CITs and EECITs [...] remained evident, in order to modernize and adapt its capacity to the migratory reality, which has changed significantly since 1994," the inspector concluded.

In addition to the EECITs in Lisbon and Porto, last year IGAI inspected 69 GNR stations and PSP police stations in the districts of Aveiro, Beja, Braga, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Faro, Leiria, Setúbal, Porto and Vila Real.