Portugal news newspaper

My friends, this was taken from the Portugal news newspaper:

Policeman attacked during Albufeira bar brawl

19/5/2012

A GNR officer was punched by a tourist in Oura, Albufeira, as he tried to break up a brawl that had ignited.
Four men had become involved in a fight during the early hours of Friday morning last week (11 May).
One of them, a 29-year-old holidaymaker punched a GNR officer in the face as the police tried to separate the men.

A GNR spokesman said that the assailant, who also tried to resist arrest, had acted “consciously” and had fractured the officer’s nose.

The incident took place at around 4am that morning on Albufeira’s notorious bar strip. The officer was seen in Faro Hospital a short while later.

In related news, three men, one aged 19 and the other two 20, have been arrested in the Western Algarve following house searches. The men are “strongly suspected” of having mugged two people in the vicinity of a petrol station in that region, using a gun, a police statement said.

The holdup took place on 11 January this year as the victims, a petrol station employee and a relative, were walking away from the establishment.

A gun and a vehicle used during the hold-up were seized during the property raids.

Furthermore, Algarve PJ police have arrested two men aged 20 and 23, believed to be behind a robbery carried out on a holiday villa in Santa Bárbara de Nexe, in February, inhabited by two tourists.

The suspects, in collaboration with three other individuals, duped the couple by ringing their doorbell and pretending to ask for information before bursting into their villa, beating the couple into submission and tying them up with adhesive tape.

The group then made off with a computer, credit cards, money and jewellery in the couple’s rented vehicle.
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New home for child refugees inaugurated

19/5/2012

On Tuesday this week the Portuguese Council for Refugees (CPR) inaugurated a special home dedicated to sheltering child refugees, who every year arrive in Portugal unaccompanied and vulnerable.

Last year alone 23 children – 21 boys and two girls – between the ages of 12 and 17 were taken in by the CPR without a parent or guardian; more than twice as many as registered in 2010 and more than seven times the number registered in 2009.

So far this year the CPR has already sheltered 13 unaccompanied refugee children.

The children mainly originate from troubled countries such as Guinea Conakry, Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, Iraq and Pakistan, having fled, or in some cases having been sent to the safety of Europe for a number of reasons, from conflict, persecution or violation of their human rights, to natural disasters, poverty, and others.

Built in partnership with Swatch - Tempus International, the Ministry for Home Affairs (MAI), the Immigration Office (SEF), Lisbon Council, SIC Esperança, BPI bank, the Luís Figo Foundation (FLF) and JCDecaux, the new building – named ‘Home for the World’ – will accommodate unaccompanied child refugees under the age of 18.

The construction of the CPR’s Welcome Centre for Child Refugees (CACR) was announced in November 2009. A year later, on 22 November 2010, the first brick was laid by Portugal’s First Lady, Drª. Maria Cavaco Silva, the project’s ‘godmother’.

It was officially inaugurated this week in the presence of the First Lady and Lisbon Mayor Dr. António Costa, among other guests of honour.

Unaccompanied refugees are described as a “special category” of refugee as the children are among those who suffer most with situations that tear normal social structures apart; an “extremely vulnerable” group within the refugee population.

Around half of all refugees who have sought assistance from the United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees throughout its 60 years existence were under the age of 18.

Located in Lisbon’s Parque da Belavista, the home comprises a communal living and dining room, a library; three-person bedrooms divided for girls and boys, support and admin offices and a large outdoors area for the children to play in.

It aims to offer the most family-like atmosphere possible for the children to live in, at the same time guaranteeing their overall development and full integration in Portuguese society.

Salomão Kolinski, administrator of Tempus International, which represents and distributes the Swatch brand in Portugal, said “today is an immense joy for all of us.”

“The ‘Home for the World’ is today a reality thanks to the thousands of Portuguese who put their trust and support in us, showing real solidarity in these difficult times. Our work here is done; we know that the CPR will do everything for the day-to-day of those who live to be protected, integrated and harmonious.”

Mr. Kolinski said that new chapters of the refugees’ lives could be written in the home, chapters of “hope and of the future.”
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Crime down, policing up

19/5/2012

The number of crimes reported to the authorities dropped by two percent in Portugal last year according to the Internal Annual Security Report presented by State Secretary Antero Luís to the Parliamentary Commission on Tuesday.

“The figures are good but we cannot relax our efforts,” said Antero Luís while emphasising that the fall in violent and serious crime had been lower at 1.2 percent.

Furthermore, the Minister of Internal Affairs Miguel Macedo told the same commission that the state would be abandoning a programme designed to renew and re-equip the PSP and GNR police forces.

Explaining that only 25 percent of the €400 million planned investment through to 2011 had actually been spent, “we are not in a position to renew the programme,” Minister Macedo stated.

The minister revealed that equipment and facility needs for both police forces were being reviewed within the framework of reviewing the overall policing structure.

Miguel Macedo specifically rejected that cost-cutting was at the root but announced that plans were afoot to close down police stations in Lisbon and Oporto.

“However, the objective is to release 310 PSP police officers for effective patrolling among the citizens” with the objective of “getting more staff operational in the street”.
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Algarve hospital group continues expansion

19/5/2012

The Hospital Particular do Algarve (HPA) Group is this weekend staging the official inauguration of its fourth unit in the region. The Clínica Particular do Algarve is located within the AlgarveShopping centre in Guia, Albufeira, and is the result of an investment of more than three million euros.

In the space of just 16 years, the HPA Group has been transformed into a regional medical care powerhouse, and growth seems far from saturated.

“We grew by 45 percent in 2010 and followed this with 34 percent growth in 2011”, Dr. João Bacalhau, chairman of the HPA Group, told The Portugal News this week.

These figures follow on a recent estimate that the number of people visiting state hospital emergency rooms has fallen by 15 percent since the beginning of the year.

The group has now added a state-of-the-art clinic in Albufeira to its three existing units in Portimão and Faro, and admits it will not stop here.

Questioned on expansion towards Spain, Dr. Bacalhau said: “The eastern Algarve or even the other side of the border is something we are looking at seriously”.

He did not say when the group intended to move into this area, saying it was a question of timing and getting the right opportunity.

The reason behind further expansion, explained the HPA chairman, is due to the high number of tourists or expats who use their existing facilities, despite having homes in Spain and similar health care options.

Dr. Bacalhau believes this is because “Portuguese are more accommodating and are definitely friendlier.

Also, most of us speak English, unlike in Spain, coupled with the constantly improving health care systems at HPA”.

The new clinic in Albufeira is the culmination of years of negotiations, investments and hard work.
The HPA Group bought out the contract of the previous tenants of the spot now occupied by the Clínica Particular do Algarve and have now signed a 12-year rolling contract with shopping centre giants Sonae, who usually offer tenants contracts lasting no longer than six years.

The advantages to consumers of having a clinic in this location are endless, argues Dr. Bacalhau.
“Albufeira needed a unit like this. Most medical acts will be conducted at the clinic, but in certain cases, some patients will be taken to either Alvor or Faro. While the clinic is what we can term a small hospital, it follows the highest standards and also provides surgical assistance”, he explains.

The opening of the clinic brings the total investment by the group in recent years to over 40 million euros, having created 350 jobs in the process.

It will be open seven days a week and also after hours, allowing people to book consultations outside of working hours.

At the height of summer, AlgarveShopping attracts up to 50,000 visitors a day, which is another reason HPA opted for what might have initially seemed an unlikely venue.

Alternative and aesthetic medicines are practices which are being strongly supported by the group, and patients can now have a choice from treatments such as Botox, acupuncture or chiropractics.

But the group is not just looking after its own ventures, and is now aiming to explore health tourism as a means of keeping tourist figures up in the struggling region.

The HPA group will be organising the first health congress, due to take place in November, and is looking to bring a number of international specialists to the region, from financially booming regions such as Africa and the Middle East, while underlying the ease with which British and other European nationals can be seen to in the Algarve.

The HPA Group’s highly-sought after accreditation by the Joint Commission is expected to further assist in removing misconceptions of health care in the Algarve.

“We already receive patients from all over the world”, says Dr. Bacalhau, but adds health tourism has all the ingredients to be hugely successful in the Algarve.

“Even simple, but sometimes costly and time-consuming exam for patients in their home countries can be done with ease. We are 100 percent computerised and the medical results will be with a patient’s doctor, wherever they might be, within minutes of them being concluded”, he explains, adding that HPA can also accommodate a visiting doctor.

“We have the climate, good hotels, good spas and good hospitals”, which Dr. Bacalhau believes is the perfect combination for health tourists to turn a medical condition into a family holiday and contribute to the list of reasons to visit or even live in the Algarve with greater peace of mind.

Thanks, Pedro. How scared must those child refugees be, in a totally new country without their family? Good to see they are being helped build a new future.

You welcome. Yes, I agree with you bb1.