Brexit helpline is functioning and received 192 calls on the first day

  • Lusa
  • 3 April 2019

A dedicated telephone line set up by Portugal’s consular services in the UK to help Portuguese nationals living in that country has started functioning. It received 192 calls on the first day.

A dedicated telephone line set up by Portugal’s consular services in the UK to help Portuguese nationals living in that country has started functioning, according to the foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva.

On the ‘Linha Brexit’ (Brexit Line) on phone number (+44) 203 636 8470 or via the email address aca.ru@ama.pt, Portuguese emigrants in the UK can have their questions about the effect on them of the UK’s departure from the European Union cleared up, as well as obtaining the information they need to secure identity and residence documents.

A telephone line set up by Portugal’s consular services in the UK to help Portuguese nationals living in that country received “192 calls” on the first day operating, the Portuguese minister for administrative modernisation said on Wednesday.

“On the first day 192 calls were received, 89 of which were to schedule services” and the rest for information, said Mariana Vieira da Silva, who was addressing a hearing on of parliament’s committee on budget, finance and administrative modernisation.

The minister added there we also “78 e-mails” and that she excepted this mean could “help and respond as best as possible to Portuguese nationals living in the United Kingdom”.

The Brexit line came into force at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 April.

According to consular data, 302,000 Portuguese nationals are registered as UK residents, 245,000 of whom living in the area covered by the consulate-general in London and the remaining 57,000 in the area covered by the consulate in Manchester.