Alleged police abuse against migrant workers shocks Portugal

By Catarina Demony

LISBON (Reuters) – Rights groups and politicians in Portugal on Friday condemned images that allegedly showed police officers abusing and torturing migrant workers and said those responsible must be punished.

In one video, published on Thursday by CNN Portugal, officers from the GNR police force could be seen forcing a migrant to inhale pepper spray from a bogus alcohol tester while abusing him verbally.

Another video, shot inside a police station by the officers, showed them hitting migrants on their hands with a ruler. Other images showed officers kicking and punching a migrant in the face.

The incidents took place in 2019 in the municipality of Odemira, known for its fruit and vegetable greenhouses that rely mainly on migrant labour from Southeast Asia to operate.

The prosecutor’s office said seven police officers in Odemira had been accused of 33 crimes against migrants.

The GNR said in a statement it was aware of the incidents and “promptly reported them” to the public prosecutor office.

Two of the seven officers had already been suspended, it said. Three of the officers were repeat offenders.

“Behaviour of this nature is absolutely unacceptable,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said “justice will be done, quickly, over the accusations of unacceptable violations” of human rights.

Rights group SOS Racismo said the case was not an isolated incident.

“Xenophobia, abuse and police violence cannot go unpunished,” it said in a statement.

In May this year, three Portuguese border officers were sentenced to several years in jail over the fatal beating of a Ukrainian man at Lisbon airport.

Amnesty International’s Portuguese branch chief Pedro Neto told Renascenca radio 950 cases of excessive use of force were reported in 2019 but less than 20 were investigated.

“This can lead to people like these officers to do whatever they want and feel all powerful because there are no consequences,” Neto said.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Angus MacSwan)