Eight out of ten refuge seekers in Brazil are Venezuelans

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to a report released on Monday, June 20, by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security, eight out of ten people who requested refuge in Brazil in 2021 were from Venezuela.

Brazil received last year 29,107 requests for refuge from citizens of 117 countries, of which 22,856 (78.5%) corresponded to Venezuelans fleeing the severe political, social, and economic crisis in their country.

The data are collected in the latest edition of a study by the Brazilian Department of Migration which, in partnership with the International Migration Observatory (OBMigra), shows the profile of the people who seek refuge in the country every year.

According to the report, after Venezuelans, citizens from Angola were the ones who most requested refuge in Brazil (1,952 or 6.7% of the total), followed by those from Haiti (2.7%), Cuba (1.8%), and China (1.2%).

In addition, the report notes that 84.6% of the population that requested to be recognized as refugees in Brazil in 2021 were up to 39 years of age, and 89% of the applicants under 15 years of age were Venezuelan.

On the other hand, the absolute number of refugee applications in Brazil remained practically stable in 2021 compared to 2020, when it reached 28,899.

However, the Brazilian government stressed that the figures for the last two years are high for that biennium in which health restrictions in many countries strongly impacted human mobility due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In this context, the nearly 30,000 applications registered with Brazil’s National Committee for Refugees (Conare) in 2021 represent a jump of 1,887% compared to 2011 when the country received 1,465 requests to be declared a refugee.

According to official information, in the last decade (2011-2021), 297,712 migrants requested refuge in Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America.

With information from EFE