Brazil has decided to tighten entry requirements for nationals of certain countries starting Monday in order to limit the influx of migrants arriving at São Paulo international airport before attempting to reach the United States by land.
The largest country in Latin America is an integral part of the preferred route of “criminal organizations that practice migrant smuggling and people trafficking,” the Brazilian Ministry of Justice denounced in a statement sent to AFP.
Arrivals are concentrated at the country’s largest airport, in Guarulhos, near São Paulo, the largest megacity in Latin America.
The Federal Police reports an “exponential” increase in the arrivals of travelers who were supposed to make a simple stopover in Guarulhos, but who remain there to try to enter Brazil instead of reaching the final destination indicated on their plane tickets.
In the meantime, they sometimes remain for weeks in a transit zone at the airport, in precarious conditions.
Most of the migrants come from Asian countries and have tickets to other South American countries as their final destination.
“Criminal organizations are directing them to request asylum to enter Brazilian territory,” explains the Federal Police.
If they succeed, they then continue their journey overland, to reach Colombia, then Panama, through the dangerous Darien jungle, in the hope of eventually arriving in the United States or Canada.
That is why the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has decided that starting Monday, travelers from countries for which Brazil requires a visa will have to obtain one even if they are just stopping over in the country, which was not necessary before.
The new rules also now require asylum seekers to prove that they are suffering political persecution or violence in their home countries.
Growing influx
Guarulhos Airport is one of the busiest in Latin America, welcoming some 35 million travelers annually.
According to official data, the number of asylum applications at this airport has increased 60-fold in ten years, from 69 in 2013 to 4,239 in 2023.
And these figures are only increasing this year: 5,428 applications were filed from January to July, or 25 per day on average, and no less than 864 from 1er as of August 21 (41 per day).
The result: hundreds of migrants are crowded into a transit zone that lacks the necessary reception conditions. The latest count by the authorities indicated that there were 481 people on site last Wednesday.
The death on August 13 of a Ghanaian man who had arrived five days earlier has raised alarm bells. “He felt unwell, was treated by a medical team and transferred to a public hospital, where he died after suffering a heart attack,” the Federal Police told AFP, without giving further details.
Local television last week showed footage of dozens of people wearing protective masks waiting in a long line for food.
“Humanitarian tragedy”
A report by the Brazilian Public Defense, an organization that provides legal aid to the poorest, reported “repeated situations of human rights violations,” particularly for children, adolescents unaccompanied by adults, and women “in situations of extreme vulnerability.”
Migrants are “sleeping on the ground” and “the demand for medical care is increasing,” the report said, also citing “very poor hygiene and food conditions.”
Following an emergency meeting called last week by the Prosecutor’s Office, Brazilian authorities have increased the number of staff in the teams processing asylum applications to reduce delays.
The Sao Paulo-based Afghanistan Refugee Relief Organization deplored Brazil’s decision to address this “humanitarian tragedy” by requiring visas for migrants.
“Trafficking (in people) must be combated and people in vulnerable situations must be welcomed and not treated like criminals,” believes this association.