RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Federal Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge (PGR) spoke out against Ministry of Justice Ordinance No. 666, which provides for summary deportation and bans foreigners suspected of involvement in specific crimes, such as terrorism and child sexual exploitation, from being allowed into Brazil.
She claims that the provision violates the principle of “human dignity”.
In an Action for Breach of Fundamental Precept filed at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), the prosecutor general states that “by establishing the anomalous features of ‘summary deportation’ and ‘repatriation’ merely ‘upon suspicion’, not consistent with the scope circumscribed by legal and constitutional rules”. “In short, the ordinance oversteps the normative scope reserved by the Constitution for regulation”.
“By doing so, it violates the principles of human dignity and equality; it violates the rights to a full defense, adversary proceedings, due process of law and the presumption of innocence of foreigners; it undermines the right to refuge; and it violates the principles of openness, freedom of information and access to justice,” says Dodge.
For her, “it is no longer conceivable that foreigners be treated in a discriminatory fashion, without respect for basic rights, which are true fundamental precepts of the Brazilian Republic”.
According to the PGR, Ordinance 666 has two effects:
“(i) prevents the admission of foreigners into national territory and, if they have already been admitted, even if they are legally within the authorized period of permanence,
(ii) allows for abrupt interruption of their lawful stay through deportation to be conducted through an expedited trial. Thus, as of the enactment of Ordinance no. 666, foreigners no longer have a predictable stay in Brazil for the period granted by the public authorities themselves”.
Raquel claims that “there is no more legal security for foreigners, no matter what the relevant activity they undertake on national territory”. “They may have their stay authorization canceled and be submitted to summary deportation, which, as the name indicates, is also a shortened and speedy procedure”.
“The use of the general term ‘involvement’ (instead of the usual terms in the practice of the crimes described there, such as ‘perpetrator’, ‘accomplice’, or even ‘accessories’) enshrines the insecurity and subjection of a foreigner to the discretion of a public official,” she argues.
“This example serves as evidence of the violation of the principle of human dignity resulting from the enactment of the aforementioned Ordinance,” she says.