国际英语新闻:Portuguese protests against eviction, rising rents

LISBON, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Portuguese marched in capital Lisbon on Saturday in protest against rising rents and house prices.

The protesters held high placards with words read "We want to live wherever we want," "Right to Housing," and shouted slogans while marching on the streets in downtown Lisbon.

Dozens of protesters also staged similar protest in Porto in the north of the country.

The protesters demand the Portuguese government draft new rules that regulate rents and end the house speculation

Today's meeting "aims to stop the situation of young people being unable to leave their parents' home", who can not find a room to rent, said Lita Rita Silva, from the Habita Association.

According to Rita Silva, today the housing problem is not limited to the city center and has already reached the periphery of the capital, where families live but they are being "cruelly and barbarously evicted."

Created in 2012, the Habita Association has been working with families being evicted from their homes and those who can not find the first dwelling.

Portugal has seen a booming tourism in recent years, causing the rising rents in the center of the cities and eviction of residents living there.