The government has announced the launch of a new App that acts as a kind of virtual 112 (emergency number) for nationals when they are abroad.
From today onwards, people can download it and basically inform Portuguese authorities about where they are.
But more to the point, it means the government can find its nationals in the event of any kind of crisis or disaster.
At the presentation of the freebie ‘Registe Viajante’, compatible with Android and iOS systems, secretary of state for the Communities José Luís Carneiro explained that “just in 2016, there were 85 extraordinary occurrences in 39 countries, including 28 terrorist attacks, seven major road accidents, six earthquakes and three tropical storms”. In all, 10 Portuguese nationals died and 31 were injured.
The first question in situations like these is whether Portuguese people are affected, said Carneiro. Thus, doing away with the need to contact authorities on the ground, the new app “makes the work of Portugal’s consular authorities much easier”, particularly bearing in mind that counterparts abroad often impose restrictions in emergency situations.
Another bonus is that once nationals have been identified through the app, consular “support and protection” can be “mobilised in a more rapid form”, and can actually help foreign authorities who might otherwise be having “difficulty identifying the nationality of victims”.
Launched at a ceremony in Lisbon yesterday (Wednesday), Registe Viajante will also be a tool through which Portuguese authorities can inform nationals travelling abroad about multiple issues, from health to emergency alerts and even more personal information,
