LISBON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Public Security Police (PSP) warned Sunday of a growing number of irregular migrants arriving in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas by bus and train from other European cities, signaling an increase in secondary movements within the Schengen area.
"We have identified risk factors, especially in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, in road and rail flows of people arriving in national territory. They are in an irregular situation in other countries and seek to move within the Schengen area, changing country to country," said PSP deputy national director and head of the National Foreigners and Borders Unit (UNEF), superintendent-chief Joao Ribeiro.
Ribeiro said the phenomenon is not entirely new but that data analysis shows secondary movements toward Portugal have been increasing. The PSP has the capacity to carry out mobile border controls at bus terminals and train stations, and will intensify inspections at transport hubs and locations with a higher presence of relevant communities in the coming months.
The officer explained that many individuals arriving this way do not intend to remain in Portugal, but are using the country as a transit point toward northern Europe, where communities and family members of their nationalities are established, or as a platform to access other EU countries via air borders.
"Our first concern is that border control be efficient and effective. The message used to circulate that it was easy to enter Portugal. Our strategy has always been the question of the reputation of the Portuguese border," Ribeiro said.
Ribeiro rejected criticism from immigrant associations that the UNEF is engaged in what they described as a "hunt" for undocumented migrants, saying the unit takes an intelligence-led approach focused on identified risk factors rather than indiscriminate enforcement.
