Vocal Voices

is still going Under control, but still going.

it was started accidently by a man clearing his land, he tried to put it out, got too big, so alerted the authorities. He is devastated, because of the amount of damage it has caused, but will still be prosecuted. Big fine coming up

What made us laugh, a little, was all the illegal camper vans, teepees, shacks, caravans etc that also went up in flames and those people are now crowd funding, to rebuild their illegals residences

Only in Portugal

There will, no doubt, be huge clampdowns on these communities.

Will they be allowed to resettle that land, Jan, or will they be "moved on"?

Sorry for the delay in replaying, I started then mucked up the lappy

They would, normally, be escorted out of the country. But as the borders are still closed, I really don't know.

But I do expect a large presence in more rural areas, checking on legality. It's not as if it's expensive, the five year "temporary" residençia cost us 2.50€ each.

But think, there is a huge fire in your rural area. What happens? You leg it, rapido.

We're registered with the local bombeiros, they have our co-ordinates, they will come and tell us to evacuate, if need be. Them or the local GNR (police)

I guess I was equating them more to the "travellers" we got up in Birmingham, Jan, where the usual technique seemed to be to evict them from the immediate area, thus moving them onto somebody else's patch, where the problems started all over again. West Midlands Police were always shunting them across the border into Warwickshire, whereupon Warwickshire Police shunted them right back. I don't think the travellers had much say in it, TBH!!

Here, we have a long-established travellers camp (probably about 8 caravans) set up opposite a lay-by on a patch of (presumably) unclaimed ground, about a mile and a half out of town. It has developed a reputation as a drug-dealing location, allegedly; whether or not it's on a so-called "county line" I don't know. The police seem to be tolerant of it, so it can't be too bad ....

These are just people who can't be bothered to register, want to live life their way - stones for healing, type of thing - but want to break the law by buying a plot of rural land, farming land, then living on it.

Not legal here, not legal in most countries, but they think they can get away with it, as they live in the middle of a forest.

The authorities have been very lenient, over the years, but are now clamping down on them.

We were asked, in our local bar, a year or so ago, by a couple of Isreali's, if there was any land, about 10 acres, locally, for sale, as they wanted to set up a community on it. Jose soon told them that there was no land for sale in the area.

Near Odemira, oddly, another big fire there yesterday, there are a lot of alternative communities living their own lives. No big problem for us, but the local Portuguese are a little more intolerant of things they don't understand.

To be totally honest, if they don't cause a local nuisance I don't see the harm. Live and let live is generally my motto.....

Doesn't bother me one way or the other Kaz, but the problem is that no-one knows where they are if there's a fire.

As soon as there is a big fire in an area, we are visited by the GNR, bombeiros or Florestel bods, to warn of any evacuation and we are then helped, should we need to evacuate or help with hosing the house, moving gas bottles into the pool.

If no-one knows where you are, you can't be helped.

what if they need hospital etc?


Do they pay into the system ? Thought not

That's true enough Jan, hadn't thought of it that way x

victor wrote:what if they need hospital etc?

They just use their health cards from their own countries. Totally illegal.