Stuck in Bermuda. That's the predicament many Azorean and Portuguese nationals are in at the moment with the Portuguese consulate closed.

Several local residents complained yesterday that the Portuguese Consulate has closed for holiday without any public notice - leaving as many as 50 people in the lurch.

They have no access to passports and identification cards, many of which could be sitting in a safe waiting to be picked up, according to travel associate Joe Amaral at C Travel.

While he did not know exactly how many people were affected by the closure, Mr. Amaral said his company was dealing with more than 20 people who could lose hundreds and in some cases even thousands of dollars to airlines and cruise companies.

"It's a real nuisance," he said. "These people booked their travel months ago.

"And the airlines will not refund them for this sort of problem."

C Travel sent a letter to the Portuguese Government in Lisbon yesterday, urging them to send down a replacement to man the local office.

"I wish they would send someone down for week or so from Boston or somewhere to get this problem resolved. We're getting in a crisis now," Mr. Amaral said.

The Royal Gazette spoke with the Consular Office in Washington DC yesterday who said they had been flooded with enquiries "all of a sudden" from Bermuda but could not help as they have no jurisdiction over the Island.

"They need to contact the embassy in Britain or the main office in Lisbon," Catarina Arruda, the diplomat with responsibility for the consular office in Washington said.

Local resident John Pacheco is one of the many affected. His daughter-in-law Kathy told The Royal Gazette last night that his passport is probably in the local office.

"He was told it would take two weeks for the passport to be renewed and to return in two weeks," she said. "He did that and when he went, the office was closed. There was no note or anything so he thought it was just closed for a bit , but a week later when he went again, he bumped into the father of the clerk who works there and he said that the office is closed because his daughter has gone on holiday."

Mr. Amaral said C Travel had been told the Consulate will reopen on August 2.

But that leaves many people like the Pachecos in a difficult position.

"Nobody knows if they are going to get somebody down to run the office in the meantime," Miss Pacheco said. "And my in-laws don't know if they should wait for that to happen or if they should cancel their cruise right away. If they cancel tomorrow (Friday, July 4) they will get half the money back but any time after that they will lose everything."

Travel agents at C Travel are also concerned about a charter flight to the Azores slated to pick up 200 passengers in Bermuda on August 1.

"It affects a lot of people on the charter and possibly too those who only have Bermuda passports and not the new British Overseas Territories passports," Mr. Amaral said.

He said people with regular Bermuda passports may now need visas to travel to Portugal and the Azores and if this is the case, those visas need to be processed through the Bermuda office.