José Sena Goulão / LUSA
The Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco
Operation in the Martim Moniz area involved dozens of agents, from various entities – and an illegal immigrant was arrested.
There’s still time to talk mega operation on zone to Martim Moniz (Lisbon) which took place at the end of last week.
On Friday, the Public Security Police (PSP) announced that the authorities detained 38 people in the previous 24 hours as part of the “Portugal Semper Seguro” campaign, which included the operation in Martim Moniz.
In a statement, the PSP Lisbon Metropolitan Command (Cometlis) said it carried out several police operations, which aim to “reinforce the perception of security in the country”.
By way of summary, Cometlis indicates that following these operations, which took place within the scope of the “Portugal Semper Seguro” campaign, 38 people were arrested, the majority due to the existence of arrest warrants (14).
People were also arrested for driving with excess alcohol (five), for lack of legal license (six), drug trafficking (two), domestic violence (one) and for illegally staying in national territory (one).
One of the operations carried out by the PSP in this context took place in the Martim Moniz area (which usually has several immigrants), during which commercial establishments and people were inspected, aiming to determine their legal presence in national territory.
In addition to the PSP, the operation involved the Food and Economic Security Authority (ASAE), the Tax and Customs Authority (AT), the Working Conditions Authority (ACT) and Social Security.
“That’s all?”
But in practice, despite the apparatus and oversight up close to 100 people To check whether they were legal, only one person was detained in this context. Just an illegal immigrant detained.
The matter reached Parliament this Monday. Pedro Delgado Alves, PS deputy, thinks that this action was an example of politicization and asked Daisy Blasco if she doesn’t think “this operational apparatus, given these results, can contribute to a perception of insecurity“.
The Minister of Internal Affairs responded: “The apparatus was nothing like what it means. The apparatus is the group of people who are working for the security of this country and who are carrying out completely normal actions.”
The Left Bloc did its balance of the seizures made in this operation: “A mega operation in which almost half of the State to Martim Moniz. (…) Some women’s bags from Luís Vitão? Some Ardidas sneakers? Are mega operations guided by criminal investigation, or driven by criteria for managing the Government and PSD’s political agenda and narrative?”, asked Fabian Figueiredo.
The minister said that whoever is “politicize” This operation is the opposition: “This action had all this fanfare on television and media outlets, but this type of operation happens often,” he assured.
For 2025, the Ministry of Internal Administration plans to invest 127.2 million euros in security forces – 2.7 million euros less than what was scheduled in the programming map from 2022 to 2026, announced minister Margarida Blasco.
