Opinion (Rogério COPETO / Official GNR): VICTIMS OF 1st AND 2nd CLASS.
It is noted today, day 22 Feb., O "European Day for crime victims"So it is a good reason to address the support issue that makes victims of crime within the country, not being less important that the remaining victims, They do not benefit however of the same answers.
Rogério COPETO
Lieutenant Colonel of the GNR
Master in Law and Security and Homeland Security Auditor
Head of the Education Division / Command Doctrine and Training
The subject of support to victims of crime has already been discussed more than once the first being by reason of the 25th anniversary celebrations of Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV) in November 2015 in an article titled "victims", institution to mark the "European day of the crime victim" today carries a so-called Seminar-debate "The Impact and Support for Families and Friends of Murder Victims".
The second time we addressed the issue of victims of crime was in the article on "Support for victims of domestic violence"In January 2016, where we know the "National Network for Victims of Domestic Violence", as the set of bodies to support victims, including the Public Administration body responsible for citizenship and gender equality, the Institute of Social Security, I. P. (ISS, I. P.), the shelters, the service structures, emergency care response, the specific responses of public administration bodies and the free telephone service with national coverage information to victims of domestic violence (CEO).
In this second article, support for DV victims was approached, by reason of the statements of Mrs. Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality, Dr. Catherine Marcelino, delivered in January 2016 no Porto, which he stated that the responses directed to victims of DV are concentrated in the country's coast, lying inside so lacking this type of support. For this reason Mrs. Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality announced at that time, one "territorialization project of support centers for victims", to ensure the actual coverage of the entire country with the necessary answers to support DV victims. As an example of the lack of support within the country was given the case of Vila Real, which according to his words, just have an answer, as Braganca, and the justification for this situation, the extinction of the Civil Governments, which had the responsibility for the creation of the Victims Assistance Offices (GAV).
Thus, in compliance with the promised were signed 14 letters of commitment with many other structures service RV victims of the countryside, on 13 December last year, to finance the purchase of vehicles, because according to Mrs. Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality "there are difficulties that have to do with the countryside. For teams moving in the territories, is coming, have the form of displacement, because it has no means of transport or have accessibility as has the coast".
We also found that in addition to financial support, for the purchase of vehicles, They will also be created more support structures for RV victims within the country, It is the first to create in the district of Bragança, which will be the second to be in this district, as article radio BRIGANTI of 30 January with the title "Southern District will have second Center for Attention to Victims but location is not yet defined", where it is stated that "the Government wants to create a second Center for Attention to Victims in Southern Bragança district". With the lack of shelters in the district of Bragança been identified as another problem, as for 12 municipalities there are only five seats in a shelter home in Braganca. verifying that in the year 2015, 24 victims, accompanied by minor children, They were sent to shelters located in other parts of the country.
also Diary of Tras-os-Montes of 2 February echoes the subject in the article "Tras-os-Montes unanswered for victims of domestic violence", stating that the "vítimas of domestic violence in the region transmontana feel abandoned by the system, because there are only two shelters with 5 vacancies available for each 26 municipalities when in reality it would take many more". It adds that "a transmontana region has, currently, com duas casas abrigo para vítimas de violência doméstica. One located in Bragança and another in Vila Real, cada dispõe de cinco vagas para a totalidade dos 26 municipalities that make up the two districts. A number that is clearly insufficient, according to the social partners who deal on a daily basis with these cases. Only by way of example, Braganca, in the previous year, were 24 women accompanied by children, to evade attackers, They had to leave the houses where they lived. Being that, if a woman leaving home with four children, the five seats are occupied immediately with, only, a family". As this situation considered alarming by those responsible for referral of victims, that they have been forced to go to other regions of the country, inclusive, for or Algarve.
Also in that article can know that the responsibility for the NAV of Braganza, that in cases of emergency, VD victims are routed, for pensions, without any security support or support and sometimes in police stations are the PSP and GNR, because it declares "pensions there is no security and because the waves are almost always busy, the victims are forced to stay in the police station PSP or GNR when requests are at night or at the weekend because there is no emergency vacancy in the district".
In turn, the Minho's Daily of 4 February in the article "Government launches new tools to combat domestic violence and trafficking in human beings"Highlights the government that go enjoy Community funds for "Creating victims service offices, emergency response, combating trafficking in human beings and training projects and awareness against domestic violence, including a new focus within schools". As the projects yet launched this year and "They include the creation of school education, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, to promote skills in schools to avoid behaviors of domestic violence and 'bullying'". We are intending that the new emergency response are no longer shelters, this should be constituted with the last answer, and so the government policy "It is to invest in intermediate responses, less time and in difficult times. Spaces where people can be 10, 15 days, spaces that allow them to think that plan want for your life, They will always have to be linked to care services". It is still provided other answers that will for combating Trafficking in Human Beings, that Mrs. Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality is "a very important area in which we have also engaged state, with regional teams to work with the Foreigners and Borders Service, the Authority for Working Conditions and the Judicial Police to combat this scourge".
Taking into account the aforementioned initiatives, We found that the interior of the country does not have the same responses to the coast and that the Government is to comply with what it promised a year ago, because all of these problems have been identified long, and the acquisition of vehicles for the use of support structures for victims RV existing and creating more answers within the country, an important contribution to cease to be victims of 1st class and 2nd class victims, hoping that these initiatives continue for the rest of the interior of the country and briefly reach the Alentejo, where also the victims have to be accepted at the Posts of the GNR and PSP police stations, while they are waiting for a place in a boarding house or a shelter house outside the region.
