Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 prisoners' living areas unhygienic, a high level of inter-prisoner intimidation/violence, a wide availability of drugs and inadequate staffing levels. The report on the 2002 visit highlighted that while some improvements had been made, there remained significant challenges. In the course of the fourth periodic visit to Portugal in 2003 the CPT's delegation examined the treatment of persons detained by law enforcement agencies and the fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment offered to such persons. It also reviewed the conditions of detention in prisons, including at Oporto Central Prison, and examined for the first time the treatment of patients in a penitentiary psychiatric hospital. Violence against women According to statistics from the Commission for Equality and Women’s Rights, 20,595 cases of domestic violence were reported to the police services in 2006. This represents an increase of some 30% compared to the previous year. The Portuguese Association of Victim Support (Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima, APAV) claims that this figure reflects barely half of the true total – their records indicate that 53% of the cases referred to them in the same time period were not reported to the police or judicial authorities. Those working to eradicate domestic violence in Portugal have hailed the increase in complaints as an indication that public education campaigns are having an impact. The number of women killed as a result of domestic violence in the year to November 2006 was recorded at 39, with 43 attempted murders during the same period (according to figures from the nongovernmental organisation Alternative Women’s Union, UMAR). The figure represents a total of approximately one in six of all murders during the year. Fifty per cent of cases presented to the Victim Support Unit for Immigrants and Racial and Ethnic Discrimination (Unidade de Apoio à Vítima Imigrante e de Discriminação Racial ou Étnica, UAVIDRE) concerned domestic violence. Amnesty International 89 On 5 April a bill was approved by parliament to exempt victims of domestic violence from medical fees, considering them as an “at-risk” population (alongside pregnant women, children under 12, firemen, and various other groups). The creation of a new government shelter for victims of domestic violence in Viana do Castelo was approved on 17 January, bringing to a total of 12 the number of such government facilities across Portugal. In total, including those run by nongovernmental organisations there are 34. On 12 April parliament passed a resolution associating itself with the European campaign to combat domestic violence and committing to evaluate the existing judicial mechanisms for tackling domestic violence in order to improve it. Debate continued over the reform of the Criminal Code, including proposals relating to the treatment of domestic violence as a crime. The current draft requires that domestic violence be “intense” or “repeated” violence to qualify under its definition. Campaigners are lobbying for these requirements to be removed. Migration Following the entrance into force of the new nationality law on 15 December 2006, 320 immigrants were granted Portuguese nationality on 20 May in a public ceremony presided over by the prime minister. The new law permits the acquisition of Portuguese nationality by immigrants legally resident in Portugal for six years (previously 10 years), immigrants who have been married to or lived in de facto union with a Portuguese citizen for three years, and to immigrants born in Portugal to parents also born in Portugal or with at least one parent resident for over five years. Trafficking in human beings Under the proposed National Action Plan against People Trafficking, whose period of public consultation ended on 30 May, AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007