LISBON — Thousands of protesters returned to two central squares in Portugal on Tuesday evening for demonstrations against an intensifying housing crisis, hours after police cleared their camps in the capital, Lisbon, and the city of Porto, detaining 55 people, Reuters reported via Al Jazeera.

Activists had occupied Lisbon's Rossio Square since Saturday, pitching around 200 tents, and Porto's Dom Joao I Square for around 10 days. The camps mirrored housing protests in neighbouring Spain, and coincided with unrest over rising living costs in countries such as France, Belgium and Italy.

Shortly before 6 a.m., after warning protesters that the camps were illegal, police launched coordinated operations in both cities. Demonstrators in Porto followed orders and dismantled their own tents, while officers cleared Rossio Square in what Carla Valadao, a spokesperson for the Lisbon camp, described as "very aggressive". Public Security Police superintendent Sergio Soares said the eviction was "calm, proportionate and appropriate, with no police charge", that 55 people were detained for refusing to leave voluntarily and that two minor injuries were promptly treated. Deutsche Welle reported that officers seized 228 camping structures, that all 55 detainees were later released and are due in court in Lisbon on Wednesday, and that organisers said more than 1,000 people gathered at each square in the evening, where Lisbon demonstrators voted to set up the tent camp again on Wednesday.

The demonstrators are demanding that the centre-right government withdraw a bill that would make evictions easier and end rent caps on new leases, which has passed a first parliamentary reading. Portugal is grappling with one of Europe's worst housing affordability crises: purchase prices have more than doubled since 2017 and rents for new leases have nearly doubled over the same period, squeezing residents in major cities, where there is also opposition to excessive tourism and an influx of so-called digital nomads.

"If people don't feel at home, in every sense of the word, they can't move forward with their lives — enough is enough," Debora Miranda, 41, a communications consultant, told Reuters at the Rossio Square protest. (Sources: Reuters via Al Jazeera; Deutsche Welle)