Brazil tightens entry rules against illegal immigration to the United States

Photo: Juan Pablo Flores Agence France-Presse Staff members at Guarulhos International Airport handle the passports of Vietnamese and Indian passengers stranded in São Paulo, Brazil, on August 23, 2024.

Lucia Lacurcia – Agence France-Presse in São Paulo

Published at 10:19

• Americas

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 human trafficking,” the Brazilian Ministry of Justice denounced in a statement sent to AFP.

Arrivals are concentrated in the country’s largest airport, in Guarulhos, near São Paulo, the largest megalopolis in Latin America.

The Federal Police reports an “exponential” increase in the arrivals of travelers who are supposed to make a simple stopover in Guarulhos, but who stay there to try to enter Brazil instead of reaching the final destination indicated on their plane tickets.

In the meantime, they sometimes stay for weeks in a transit zone at the airport, in precarious conditions.

Most of the migrants are from Asian countries and have tickets with final destinations in other South American countries.

“Criminal organizations direct them to apply for asylum to enter Brazilian territory,” explains the Federal Police.

If they succeed, they then continue their journey by land, to reach Colombia, then the Panama, through the dangerous Darien jungle, in the hope of eventually reaching the United States or Canada.

That’s 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 previously necessary.

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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, handling some 35 million travelers a year.

According to official data, the number of asylum applications in This airport has increased sixty-fold in ten years, from 69 in 2013 to 4,239 in 2023.

And these numbers are only increasing this year: 5,428 applications were filed from January to July, or 25 per day on average, and no fewer than 864 from August 1 to 21 (41 per day).

The result: hundreds of migrants are massed in a transit zone lacking 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 sounded the alarm. “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 explained to AFP, without giving further details.

Local television last week showed images of dozens of people wearing protective masks in a long line waiting for food.

“Humanitarian tragedy”

A report by the Brazilian Public Defender, an organization that provides legal aid to the poorest, noted “repeated situations of human rights violations,” particularly for children, adolescents unaccompanied by adults, and women “in situations of extreme vulnerability.”

Migrants “sleep on the floor” and “the demand for medical care is increasing,” the report said, also noting “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 has 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 as criminals,” the group said.