The organization Amnesty International has denounced that the Portuguese Police used disproportionate force when dismantling the camps for the right to housing in Porto and Lisbon, and has emphasized the importance of protecting the right to protest.
The collective has pointed out that it is "deeply concerned about the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by the police" and has demanded "to investigate what happened."
The NGO deployed observers on the ground to record how the police action was developing and has warned of "the conduct of the police during the dispersal of the protest and the violations of their obligations under international law."
Amnesty reminds that "the police have the obligation to resort to the dispersal of protests and the use of force only as a last resort and in a manner proportional to the situation. That is not what we are seeing, and this situation must be investigated urgently," insists the group, which demands that these episodes "do not happen again."
"The injuries caused by the police to peaceful protesters this morning and the increasing resort to excessive and disproportionate force in recent weeks represents a new low for the right to protest across the country," pointed out the executive director of Amnesty in Portugal, Joao Godinho Martins.
The association SOS Racismo has also condemned the police operation and has demanded the resignation of the Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, for the "excessive brutality of the police action" that contrasts with the "peaceful conduct of the protesters."
The entity also warns of the "deep social crisis" to which the Executive responds with "brute force, intimidation, and unjustified use of military means against unarmed citizens." "Suffocating discontent with fear" implies, it warns, "a dangerous authoritarian drift."