(São Paulo) Brazil will impose restrictions on the entry of some foreign citizens from Asia who seek refuge in the South American nation to migrate to the United States and Canada, the Justice Ministry’s press office announced Wednesday.
The measure, which will come into effect on Monday, will affect Asian migrants who need a visa to stay in Brazil.
A federal police investigation showed that these migrants often buy flights with a stopover at São Paulo international airport, en route to other destinations, but stay in Brazil to then begin their journey north, according to official documents provided to The Associated Press (AP).
More than 70% of asylum applications at the airport come from people of Indian, Nepalese or Vietnamese nationality, one of the documents said.
Starting next week, visa-free travelers will either have to continue their journey by plane or return to their home countries, the ministry said.
A report signed by Federal Police investigator Marinho da Silva Rezende Júnior informs the Justice Ministry that since the beginning of last year there has been “great unrest” due to the influx of migrants at the airport in Guarulhos, the second most populous city in the state of São Paulo.
“The evidence suggests that these migrants, in their majority, are using the well-known – and extremely dangerous – route from São Paulo to the western state of Acre, to be able to access Peru and head towards Central America, and finally reach the United States through its southern border,” one of the documents states.
An AP investigation in July found migrants passing through the Amazon, some from Vietnam and India. Many have returned to Acre, on the border with Peru, as U.S. border policies have sparked a wait-and-see attitude among them.
Brazil’s Justice Ministry said the new guidelines will not apply to the 484 migrants currently waiting at São Paulo’s international airport.
Earlier Wednesday, Brazil’s federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that São Paulo’s international airport “once again has a high number of foreigners arriving on LATAM airline flights and not leaving promptly due to the overload of the Brazilian migration system.”
The prosecutor added that it would pressure airlines to provide migrants with basic supplies while they wait for them to be granted sanctuary. The term refers to a request for refugee status, regardless of the reason.
LATAM did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment.
“It is important that we rule quickly on these requests for refuge so that the increasing arrival of foreigners does not impact the operation of the airport itself,” said federal prosecutor Guilherme Rocha Göpfert after a meeting at São Paulo International Airport on Wednesday.
One of the documents said the Brazilian Federal Police had received 9,082 requests for shelter this year through July 15. That’s more than double the amount for all of 2023, and the highest number in more than a decade, the figures show.
Brazil has always welcomed refugees, especially Afghans in recent years, regardless of the ideological leanings of the Latin American country’s leaders.
But reports of migrants seeking refugee status to use Brazil as a staging post have frustrated the government, particularly at a time when the system is clogged with many people from Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine applying for humanitarian visas.
Brazil granted 11,248 humanitarian visas to Afghans alone between September 2021 and April 2024, according to government figures.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva decided in January 2023, at the beginning of his term, to bring his country back into the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, an intergovernmental agreement.
His cabinet retained humanitarian visas, but the guidelines for granting them became more restrictive under his administration.