Lisbon residents denounce an increase in violence in tourist areas

Dozens of neighbors of Lisbon reported this Thursday an increase in the criminality in some of the most touristic neighbourhoods of the Portuguese capital, such as Mouraria, Alfama and Baixa, and asked the City Council and the Government to take measures to reverse the situation.

Assaults on shops and vehicles, robberies and threats to neighbours, syringes on the ground, excessive noise and human excrement in the street were some of the situations explained by those affected in a press conference organised by the municipal council of the Santa Maria Maior district, which includes these neighbourhoods.

In the call for the event, the district body also denounced illegal occupations of buildings, violations and “even homicides.”

“We cannot ignore the fact that the situation has worsened. There have always been uncomfortable situations, undesirable situations over the years, but especially after the pandemic and after the last year, these problems have become more acute,” said the president of the board, socialist Miguel Coelho, during the event.

Coelho gave as an example that it is “constant“finding syringes on the ground, that there are people who hide drugs under the paving stones in the area and then threaten garbage collectors to keep them away from the streets, and that there are gangs that take advantage of the night to disrupt public spaces.

He also explained that many residents no longer report the situations they have suffered to the police out of fear, because they believe that nothing will be solved or because the security forces do not provide an effective response.

“Lisbon is a very safe city, but this particular area is not up to par. Things are bad here and urgent measures need to be taken to get the situation under control again.”Coelho added, calling for a faster response from the authorities.

He also pointed out that this is a situation that affects everyone and does not come from any specific group: “It is not an ethnic problem, it is not a racial problem, it is not a religious problem, it is not a sexual orientation problem, it is a problem for everyone and everyone is a victim,” he insisted.

Ana Monteiro, a 68-year-old resident who attended the meeting, explained that she has been assaulted several times in La Mouraria and that someone tried to rob her a month ago, which makes her afraid and makes her avoid certain streets.

Also present was António Loretti, a street sweeper who said that he constantly cleans up syringes that are lying on the ground, with or without blood.

“It’s only recently that this has started to happen a lot more,” he clarified in a statement.

Gurnek Sing, of Indian origin, has had a telephone shop and a restaurant in this neighborhood for twenty years and is the victim of assaults.each month” in his establishments, which have included having his shop windows broken and having his shop set on fire on one occasion.

During the meeting, the municipal board requested that these neighborhoods be considered a “critical zone”that police control be reinforced, that video surveillance cameras be installed, that the hours of sale of alcohol be limited and that more rooms for supervised drug consumption be distributed in other neighborhoods of the city, among other measures.

The Municipal Council of Santa Maria Maior covers the neighbourhoods of Alfama, Baixa, Castelo, Chiado, Mouraria and Sé, many of them areas with a large number of foreign resident population and tourist accommodation.

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