RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil recognized 2,224 people as refugees in 2021, according to an assessment by the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety. Most of these 2,224 are children; there are 1,500. The number represents about 8% of the total of 2020.
The body that decides who should receive refugee status is the National Committee for Refugees (Conare).
According to the Ministry, in the years 2019 and 2020, there were many recognitions motivated by the flow of immigrants from Venezuela, which occurred in the years 2018 and 2019.
In 2020 and 2021, the influx of immigrants was less voluminous and more similar to that of the years before 2018.
Temporary residence visas
Many people received temporary visas and residence permits, mainly because of the situation in Afghanistan -the Taliban has retaken control of the country.
In early December, the Ministry released a report stating that Brazil had granted 339 humanitarian visas to Afghan citizens. According to the Ministry, another 393 requests were being analyzed by Brazilian diplomats at that time.
In September, the Foreign Affairs and Justice and Public Security ministries announced that Brazil could grant humanitarian visas to Afghans wishing to leave Afghanistan because of the Taliban, who retook control of the country.
According to the government regulation that deals with the issue, temporary visas and residence permits may be granted for humanitarian reception purposes to “Afghan citizens, stateless persons and people affected by the situation of serious or imminent institutional instability or serious violation of human rights or International Humanitarian Law in Afghanistan”.