Legal moves may halt destruction of Faro Islanders' homes

This Wednesday the Ria Formosa Polis Society officially is to evict owners of over 100 buildings considered illegal on Praia de Faro, but this process may now be delayed due to measures filed in court by some owners.

116 second homes and outbuildings are marked for demolition, but some may escape being possessed by Polis due the lawsuits already lodged in Loulé court.

Initially, there was a group of 40 owners of property on Faro Island intending to take court action to try and prevent the destruction of their assets, but about half have dropped out mainly due to the cost of legal action and the fact that Polis has unilaterally determined that anyone not surrendering their property will be sent a bill for its demolition.

Many owners have complained to Polis that they disagree with the categorisation of their property; principal residences are exempt, according to Polis but many islanders say their property has been classified as a second home when it is not.

The Faro Islanders had until Monday to vacate their properties, a month's extension to the original deadline and according to the letter sent to owners by Polis in November, if they moved out, Polis would shoulder the cost of demolition.

The ‘back to nature’ project for the Ria Formosa islands includes the demolition of 800 buildings, a process that started in early December 2014.

The Polis Litoral Ria Formosa programme is part of the implementation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan (POOC) Vilamoura - Vila Real de Santo António, adopted ten years ago and which ends in 2015.

The Olhão Livre blog and highly critical voice for the displaced islanders sees the forced movement of island dwellers as a disgraceful example of an uncaring state whose aim is to remove the unsightly to make way for expensive beachside homes.

Especially harsh is the displacement of those who have no other accommodation, despite claims by Polis that only second homes are being removed.

The blog notes that the Portuguese constitution includes in Article 65 ‘Housing and Urban Development’ that

1.  Everyone has the right, for themselves and their family, to a dwelling of adequate size, in terms of hygiene and comfort that preserves personal and family privacy

2 - To ensure the right to housing, the State must:
a) - Plan and execute a housing policy included in local development plans ...
b) - Promote, in collaboration with local authorities, the construction of economic social housing

The lack of arrangements by local councils has been notable as the islanders homes are knocked down under the watchful eye of local police. The original Polis plan included provision for alternative accommodation to be built, preferably on the same islands that now are being stripped of their buildings.

Municipalities and the state are responsible for re-housing these people but have not done so which may be against the law, but the environmental minister is not interested as the displaced are generally poor people with no money to spend on lawyers.

Faro and Olhão councils, who participated in the preparation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan and are shareholders in Polis whose demolitions they approve of, seem to have washed their hands of their responsibilities to resettle the inhabitants driven off the islands.

The Portuguese Constitution also contains an article on resisting the law, stating that anyone has the right to resist any order that infringes their rights, freedoms and guarantees, they may resist by force any aggression when it is not possible to appeal to the authorities.

This may explain the police presence on the island as the buildings are painstakingly dismantled but the police, by preventing rightful resistance, may be breaking the law by preventing dissent.

There is another article in the Constitution that is being used by the Faro Islanders- Liability of Public Entities-  whereby 'the State and other public bodies are civilly responsible, as are their employees or agents, for acts or omissions in the exercise of their functions if this omission results in violation of the rights, freedoms and guarantees or harm to others.'

Whether any of this will ever be put into action in time to save the islanders’ property is unlikely but if successful claims later are made, the €7 million budget for knocking down houses and moving sand around, may have to be increased as compensation claims are approved in court.

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