RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Selling all her things and leaving the country was the reaction of Venezuelan Keila Ruiz Yepez when she found herself in the midst of a social and humanitarian crisis. She crossed the border with Brazil, reaching the state of Roraima in August 2018. She left one end of the country for another and currently, at 45, lives with her husband and two children in Esteio, a town near the capital of Rio Grande do Sul (RS).
“We are from the capital Caracas, but we lived on Margarita Island. And there was no food. Supplies depended on ships and there was also a lack of gasoline. We had difficulties accessing work and school. When we arrived in Esteio it was very emotional. The people received us with an affection that I can’t explain. My children started to study, we got jobs. We started a new life,” she recalls.
The city also prepared itself to receive a contingent of Venezuelans and integrate them: the city government of Esteio even determined the mandatory teaching of the Spanish language in municipal schools. Currently, the town of approximately 90,000 inhabitants is home to 416 Venezuelans. The trajectory of each one of them has similarities, like many others involving starting over on Brazilian soil.
Last week, the Ministry of Citizenship held a ceremony to celebrate the milestone of 50,000 Venezuelans internalized by means of Operação Acolhida, a welcoming initiative involving a network of organizations under the leadership of the ministry. A study released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday, April 29, translates into numbers the tales of hope that have been built by this population.
Conducted in partnership with the humanitarian organization SOS Children’s Villages Brazil, the survey with 198 respondents in 9 municipalities in the South, Southeast and Northeast revealed that 51% of them have access to training and professional qualification courses, 95% have used the country’s health service and 93% said their relationship with Brazilians is good or very good. In 63% of the families, their children are enrolled in school. In addition, 98% have access to electricity, 99% have access to drinking water, and 97% have access to basic sanitation. The average declared monthly family income was R$1,338.20.
According to UNHCR, the survey reveals the ability of many Venezuelans to overcome the challenges caused by involuntary displacement. “Although family income has suffered losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was possible to ascertain the effectiveness and sustainability of actions aimed at access to education, health, home infrastructure, and income generation in the institutional modality of internalization,” the study records.
Given the welcome found in Brazil, only 22% of respondents said they would like to return to Venezuela. Keila is not in that group. “I want to stay here. I feel at home. I have access to basic services. But of course I feel homesick. When I hear a song, watch news from there, it breaks my heart,” she says.
The atypical movement on the border with Venezuela began to draw attention in 2017, culminating with a series of social problems in the municipality of Pacaraima (RO), 215 kilometers from the capital Boa Vista. The following year, the flow intensified and, in 2019, still remained high. Given the scenario, the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE), a body linked to the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, recognized in 2019 the situation of serious and widespread human rights violations in Venezuela. The decision influences the analysis of requests for recognition of refugee status submitted by Venezuelans.
According to Paulo Sergio de Almeida, a livelihoods officer at UNHCR, about 500 people were entering the country daily. “Not all of them stayed in Brazil, there is an entry and exit flow. But some of these people ended up staying,” he says.
Operation Acolhida (Operation Welcome) emerged in April 2018 as an emergency humanitarian response by the Brazilian state to the migration flow resulting from the crisis in the neighboring country. The initiative, led by the Ministry of Citizenship, is supported by a network of civil society organizations coordinated with the support of UNHCR.
It also seeks to involve states and municipalities in the reception of Venezuelans. The Brazilian Army coordinates the logistics of the migrants’ displacement.
“We estimate that about 260,000 Venezuelan refugees and migrants currently live in Brazil. This is equivalent to saying that one in five received support from Operation Acolhida. The partnership ensures that Venezuelan refugees and migrants find in Brazil a horizon of hope,” said the Minister of Citizenship, João Roma, during the event that celebrated the mark of 50,000 Venezuelans officially made welcome.
Brazilian vocation
Three pillars constitute Operation Acolhida: the first is the border and documentation order, and the second involves the guarantee of access to basic needs of the arriving population, including the offer of shelter in the shelters established in Roraima. The third pillar is socio-economic integration through the interiorization strategy.
The initiative reiterates a vocation of the country, historically consolidated, to deal positively with migrants and refugees. Brazil is, for example, considered by UNHCR an international standard reference in the treatment given to Syrians who fled the armed conflict that has ravaged the Middle Eastern country for 10 years. The legislation guarantees refugees the same rights as any Brazilian citizen, such as access to health and education services.
The case of Venezuelans is more challenging because of the volume entering the country. Since the beginning of the humanitarian crisis in 2017, CONARE has granted refuge to 46,000 Venezuelans. Of all refugees on Brazilian soil, about 80% came from Venezuela. In Latin America, Brazil is the nation that has recognized the largest number of refugees from the neighboring country.
Brazilians and Venezuelans have little difficulty in crossing the border that separates them. Due to a bilateral agreement, tourists do not need visas and can visit the neighboring country for 90 days. To deal with the intense flow as of 2017, a post of Operation Acolhida was installed in Pacaraima, near the border. At the site, a first process of identification, screening, and guidance on documentation is done in order to have access to the internalization strategy.
Two options are offered to Venezuelans to legalize their permanence. The first is to request refugee status. The other is to request a temporary resident visa, an alternative that allows them to stay in the country initially for two years. Afterwards, it is possible to request a conversion of status to a long term visa. Both refugee applicants and refugees who have already been recognized, as well as temporary residents, have full access to public services. They are cleared to seek jobs in the labor market and can obtain their Individual Tax Registration Number (CPF) and Worker’s Record Book (CLT).
“In the border region, there are no possibilities of socioeconomic insertion for the entire population that arrives. So a part of them look for other regions in Brazil. The interiorization strategy supports people who want to move to other Brazilian cities, where there are better prospects for socio-economic integration,” explains Paulo Sérgio de Almeida, an official from UNHCR.
Created by the United Nations to ensure and protect the rights of people in refugee situations all over the world, the UNHCR is maintained exclusively with donations that can be made through its website. In Brazil, it is directly active in Roraima, precisely because of the concerns with the situation on the border with Venezuela. In the rest of the country, the action is indirect, financing social organizations and third sector entities. They develop actions on several fronts, including Portuguese language courses, professional training, referral of children to school, social and financial aid, and psychosocial assistance, among others.
A testimonial recorded by Venezuelan Alberto José Figueredo Lugo, shown at the ceremony organized to celebrate the 50,000 “regularized” people, reveals the importance of this network of social organizations in Brazil. He highlights the welcome he received in Boa Vista through Cáritas Brasileira, an entity linked to the Catholic Church.
Lugo has been in the country for three years and feels very satisfied. “It meant a lot to me. I changed my life, my dreams, my goals. I was able to enter the job market. My dream was always to be an entrepreneur and have my own business. Today I have a hamburger restaurant in the city of São Sebastião. And I want to give my contribution to this country that welcomed me”, he said.
Modalities
Internalization may occur in several modalities. In the most common, called institutional, people alone or with their families go to one of the reception and integration centers supported by UNHCR, which exist in different cities of 13 states. There, they are generally sheltered for three months and receive support to integrate themselves into the new society. Another modality is family reunification, when there are already relatives living in other states. In this case, the government provides the logistics for the reunion. The third modality, social reunion, is similar and occurs when the migrant already has friends or acquaintances living in Brazil and willing to welcome him/her in their residence.
There is one other possibility, i.e. when a company is interested in hiring Venezuelans who are in Roraima. In this case, there is a rigorous procedure adopted by Operação Acolhida, which begins with a survey of profiles and recruitment, and also involves the evaluation of housing possibilities in the destination place.
Iguatemi Shopping Malls, based in São Paulo, has turned to Operação Acolhida. “Currently we have 26 migrants and refugees in our workforce in different malls, mostly from Venezuela. We are very committed to gender equity, so we try to bring more women to complete our diversity. We consider it important, in this moment of pandemic, to contribute to giving new meaning to the life and work of some Venezuelan women,” says Vivian Broge, the company’s Human Resources director.
Manaus is the leader in the number of Venezuelans welcomed by the internalization strategy. In the list of the 10 cities that received the most people, 8 are capitals. The other two are Dourados (MS), where there are 2,517, and Chapecó (SC), which has received 1,056.
“In these two cities, the food processing sector, especially meat packing plants, is prominent. These are companies that have been expanding their production capacity, either for export or to meet some kind of additional demand and, many times, they don’t find enough workers in the region to fill all the open positions. So the people hired go with their families or bring their families with them afterwards,” he says.
Access to formal employment is considered one of the main indicators of the success of internalization. It was measured in a survey in 2019, conducted by UNHCR in partnership with Reach international organization, which compared the situation of people internalized at two moments: when they were still in Roraima and about four months after arriving at their new destinations. Family nuclei totaling 314 individuals were studied. The results showed that there was an average increase of 230% in monthly family income, up from R$532 to R$1,758. Access to formal employment increased from 7% to 77%.
In addition, many families were able to leave the shelters and rent houses. Before the internalization, only 22% of them had this capacity. Four months after arriving in their new destinations, 74% were already in rental properties. “Many of the Venezuelans were trying to survive in Roraima by doing jobs that paid a daily wage, but had uncertain periodicity. The greater access to formal employment makes a big difference,” says Paulo Sérgio.
Pandemic
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought new challenges both for the Venezuelans and for the management of Operation Acolhida. The logistics of interiorization requires greater caution. In addition to regularized documentation, to be a beneficiary of the interiorization strategy, the interested party needs to be immunized with the mandatory vaccines against yellow fever, measles, and diphtheria. With the pandemic, the medical verification to determine if there are conditions to travel became even more thorough.
“Despite the pandemic crisis, a crisis within a crisis, the operation did not stop and we registered 19,000 interiorizations last year alone,” said General Antônio Manoel de Barros, operational coordinator of Operation Acolhida, during a presentation at the event that celebrated the 50,000 welcomed arrivals.
On the other hand, the pandemic caused a reduction in the entry flow into Brazil. “The border has been closed since March last year. There is a smaller flow, usually people who end up using alternative and informal routes,” comments Paulo Sérgio.
The UNHCR official notes that Venezuelans who are in Brazil have shown a certain capacity to endure the crisis. “The new study shows that the vast majority of people remain integrated. Interiorization has ensured a sustainable socioeconomic insertion process. The person is able to establish networks in the region and, from there, access to work. Of course, many people lost their jobs during the pandemic, but the resilience of these people is greater. So, they often managed to relocate or find other ways to generate income.”
Source: UOL