Insecurity in the Algarve – for how much longer?

Nightfall had just set in. A little after 7pm on 9th January, a British family (he a resident here for the last 25 years, she for 15) prepared to eat dinner in the company of their two young children, aged 12 and 13.

“I just remember hearing a “click” at the end of the house and the dog barking, scared”, Sarah (not her real name) told us. Suddenly four masked men came charging down the corridor, shouting “Money, jewellery! Money, jewellery!”

They’d broken into the house in Sobradinho, Loulé, through a window. Armed with pepper spray, they immediately began their violence, wielding baseball bats and crowbars.

The couple was barricaded into a bedroom, the children into a bathroom. The men then turned the house upside down – demanding bank cards, and saying they would be going to the nearest Multibanco machine to withdraw money. The nightmare lasted more than an hour.

Despite their brutality, the robbers didn’t manage to jemmy open the garage to steal the family’s car. All the same, they took everything they could – computers, games consoles, video and photographic cameras, clothes, almost 100-euros in cash, even drinks and the couple’s wedding rings.

After the men disappeared, the couple was able to call «112». The husband, aged 62, who suffers from heart problems, had begun to feel ill during the robbery. An ambulance from Loulé fire station was sent to assist.

Still visibly traumatised by the violence they witnessed invade their home, the couple told us that as far as they could make out one of the members of the gang was Portuguese, two others had Brazilian accents and the fourth had an Eastern European pronunciation.

Temporarily staying in an apartment close to relatives in Vilamoura, the family told us they are still nervous and frightened to return home. In the same week that they were robbed, they’d suffered an attempted break-in – on 5th January.

But the problem of insecurity affects all nationalities. “We live here like prisoners. I can’t go far because I run the risk of finding the house cleaned-out of everything by the time I get back”, Portuguese painter João Luís (not his real name) – who has lived nine years in this part of Loulé – told us. His house is just a few metres from the home of the burglarised English family.

“We emerged from a dictatorship to a form of pseudo-democracy, which in reality is anarchy. The consequences are there to see”, he complains. “I consider that security is a right, and that one cannot live like this in a country that calls itself part of Europe”, he adds – referring to his experiences living previously in Sweden, France and Holland.

It’s a view shared by his neighbour Cristina Gasser. She came to Southern Portugal from Germany, in search of a quiet retirement in the company of her husband – a former IT engineer from the Baviera car company. They’ve been living here for eight years, but now they’re considering returning to their homeland.

“What concerns us is the violence against people. Previously, it was the empty houses that were robbed – now, they’ll go in anywhere, at any time”, the couple told us. “They treat people badly, even when victims are ready to hand over everything”.

Truth be told, last December two couples – one Swiss and the other German – were robbed with considerable violence within their own homes. But the most aggressive break-in of all took place at the home of the Swiss couple, in the Almancil area. Here, the burglars, apart from stealing, raped the owner of the house – an elderly lady of 77.

“Robbers are using more and more strategies to gain entry into houses. They pour water under the front door, to intrigue people. They’re fearless”, Gasser tells.

The solution? “Basically, it is a political problem, because the GNR lack legal and logistical means to protect citizens. If a police officer crashes or damages a car in pursuit of criminals, he has to pay for the repairs out of his own pocket! This isn’t the case in any other European country – and this legal basis acts as an incredible disincentive to police”.

And the chaos in the region resulting from property speculation facilitates criminal activity. It happens throughout the Algarve.

Here, “the law only allows building where there are ruins” – but this hasn’t stood in the way of licences for new construction sites. “I’ve see the same ruin being used for three different projects”, Gasser continues.

Thus, the lack of local reference points, and general geographical chaos, lead a group of Sobradinho residents to taking the initiative – something, in their opinion, that should have been done by the competent authorities.

They drew up a map and numbered the residencies – all of which now have geo-reference points registered via GPS. The map was handed into the GNR police station in Loulé last November.

A month later, Loulé police launched their “residencia segura” programme, which reinforced local patrols and created a direct emergency telephone line.

Even so, many residents have already put their houses up for sale. There are “For Sale” signs all over the area. “What’s happened is that people feel desperate. On the one hand, they can’t sell their houses to get away from crime – and, on the other, they live in fear and feel threatened”, Gasser elaborates.

And while in the past, construction flourished; today it’s just the opposite. José Manuel Pereira – a local businessman with interests in construction – predicts an uncertain future. “I have a building to construct in the area of Alcaria/ Poço Geraldo, but I don’t know if it’ll go ahead”, he tells us.

“Everyday I see the sadness of those people, who are defenceless. They came here because they know this is a country with a lot of sun and friendly people.

They know there’s no tradition of the Portuguese beating people up, or killing them, during break-ins. Only people who come from countries where the social reality is very harsh use barbaric methods like that” he said, referring directly to the free circulation of people within Europe. “It’s just that now, we live in an era where we simply don’t know who comes for good reasons, and who comes for bad”. “Portugal will lose out, massively – because these people who feel threatened and want to leave live here. Many of them work, and employ Portuguese people. It would be so much better if the Government – instead of putting money into grand projects – invested in the training of more police, and then gave them the means they need to effectively fight crime”, Gasser concluded.