Western Europe is one of the wealthiest regions in the world - and it is hard to find slums there.

But in Portugal, the poverty-stricken area of Cova da Moura, which sits on the edge of Lisbon, the country's capital, people live destitute lives.

Since the 1970s, the area has become home to some 6,000 people.

But now big real estate developers are planning to send bulldozers into the Cova da Moura to tear down many homes and replace them with new buildings - against the residents' will.  

Al Jazeera's Hamish Macdonald reports from Lisbon, where Cova da Moura's residents say they will not let their homes pulled down without a fight.