Portugal's Home Affairs Minister today said the initiative by the National Union of Police (Sinapol) at the country's airports was “truly regrettable.”
Miguel Macedo was alluding to the initiative of the union to distribute leaflets to tourists at Portugal’s airports warning holiday makers that the difficulties that police officers are suffering may endanger the security of the country.
Miguel Macedo added that the allegations are “not true because, as contained in the Homeland Security Annual Report, the crime statistics in Portugal for 2013 were the best in the last decade."
Macedo's comments follow those of Algarve tourism boss Desiderio Silva who last week called for the National Union of Police to desist in its protest lest its actions spoil the carefully created image of safety that the Algarve has been promoting in the recent past.
Silva saw the police action as “jeopardising the recovery of tourism, which already shows positive indicators, and threatening expected job growth.”
