At the end of a meeting with trade union and labour representatives of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), Rui Rio confessed that he was "very concerned" by the reports of situations that had been made to him and that he said he did not want to reproduce them in full in public.

"There is no capable control of the Portuguese borders, there is a lot of deficiency in the way the Portuguese borders are being controlled. The example I am giving is that even citizens who do not bring the test completed and have to do it here, many enter without doing it," he warned.

"I have to say that I was very worried about whether or not there are checks at the Portuguese borders," he added.