Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 26^th March 2025

Good afternoon everyone,

News

Violence is on the rise among young people and it goes hand in hand with mobile phones

Rita, Filipe and Gustavo do not know each other, but they have in common the fact that they were victims of violence at school. Official figures tell us that juvenile delinquency is on the rise, while parents and schools blame each other for the issue. Growing up in a stable family, or even attending a privileged school, no longer protects anyone from becoming an aggressor, victim or witness. Unfiltered violence is on mobile phones, the companion that fills most of teenagers’ days. Too often, it is uncensored.

You don’t need to watch “Teenage” on Netflix to get scared. Just look at the notification history that weighs on your pocket. Student threatens classmates with a knife in Sintra. Young man attacked with a machete near the school in São João do Estoril.

In recent weeks, the perception — which risks being elected word of the year — is that our cell phones are calling us too often to address this issue. The news seems to always be the same. But it isn’t.

Autistic student brutally attacked in Moita. Students film attacker punching classmate in Barreiro. Young people attack each other during class and one is taken to hospital. Student throws chair at teacher.

While the finger scrolls through these news stories, swiping away at the ones they don’t want to read, Rita, Filipe and Gustavo experience physical, verbal and psychological abuse firsthand. The aftermath? Rita, 16, began to mutilate herself and have panic attacks. Gustavo, 15, talks about suicide. Filipe, 9 and on the autism spectrum, says he should never have been born. The names of the three are fictitious and the parents also ask for anonymity to tell these stories, for fear that their children will suffer more in schools, all in Lisbon.

This perception is supported by the numbers. The most recent Annual Internal Security Report, the 2023 RASI, shows a clear increase in juvenile delinquency. Preliminary figures released in 2024 — from Escola Segura, APAV, and various studies on bullying — tell us that the pattern will continue.

However, it is not known when the final, official figures will be released. The presentation of the RASI by this Government still depends on Luís Montenegro, the Minister of Justice clarified last week. The RASI must be presented to Parliament (the law sets the deadline as 31 March), but the Assembly of the Republic has been dissolved. Even if the submission is not called into question, it is certain that the usual debate will not take place. Expresso released some figures this Monday, but these are provisional figures.

In Portugal, RASI 2023 reports 1,833 incidents of juvenile delinquency (crimes committed by young people between the ages of 12 and 16) — an increase of 8.7% and the highest number since 2017. It is in the Lisbon metropolitan area — where the Rita, Filipe and Gustavo schools are located — that there is a greater number of incidents, with emphasis on the municipalities of Loures and Amadora.

There were also 2,048 arrests (+13.1%) related to group crime — defined as a crime committed by three or more suspects. It increased by 14.6% in 2023 : a total of 6,756 occurrences, the highest value since 2014.

Portugal records 1,584 cases of tuberculosis in 2023, with the highest incidence in Lisbon and the North

The most common form of the disease continues to be pulmonary, with a higher level of contagiousness, with 51.4% of pulmonary cases being contagious. The disease continues to predominate in men.

Portugal recorded 1,584 cases of tuberculosis in 2023, maintaining the notification rate at 14.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with the regions of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the North presenting the highest incidences.

The data, which appears in the tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring report in Portugal by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), released on World Tuberculosis Day, indicate that of the 1,584 cases of tuberculosis reported, 1,461 were new cases and 123 were retreatments.

According to the document, the migrant population remained a population in a situation of greater vulnerability, with a notification rate 3.6 times higher than the national average (54.3 cases per 100,000 migrants in 2023), with an increase in the proportion of cases, compared to 2022 (35.8% in 2023 and 30% in 2022).

The Lisbon and Tagus Valley region and the North region remained the two regions with the highest incidence, with 18.2 and 16 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively, highlights the report, which will be presented this Monday, in Porto, at the meeting promoted by the DGS “Tuberculosis in Portugal: epidemiology and strategies” .

“ There were 76 deaths, which corresponds to a fatality rate of 4.8% in all reported cases , and the deaths are associated with other comorbidities and also with an age group over 75 years old,” the director of the National Tuberculosis Program (PNT) of the DGS, Isabel Carvalho, told Lusa.

He noted that it is a disease that continues to predominate in men, corresponding to 68.3% of reported cases.

“Tuberculosis continues to be a disease that has a greater focus on populations in situations of greater vulnerability, whether in the migrant population, or also in its association with other social determinants, such as addictions, or other infections, such as HIV infection or other chronic diseases, such as poorly controlled diabetes or even oncological diseases”, he highlighted.

Isabel Carvalho noted that the most frequent form of the disease continues to be pulmonary (70.8% in 2023), with a higher level of contagiousness, highlighting that 51.4% of these pulmonary cases were contagious.