Under Lula, Brazil becomes refugee heaven; accumulates unprecedented queue of requests

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is bringing the country an unprecedented number of foreigners waiting for their refugee claims to be considered.

The data are from the government itself and were disclosed to the column by the National Committee for Refugees (Conare) president, Sheila de Carvalho.

She is a special advisor to the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, Flávio Dino.

In total, 134 thousand of people want to be considered refugees in Brazil. They are waiting for a definition from the authorities.

In 2010, the queue contained only 610 people.

“We are experiencing the longest queue in the history of Conare,” said the body leader created in the mid-1990s.

The volume is due to the avalanche of Venezuelan refugees and the maintenance of routes for Haitians and other nationalities.

This, however, is not the only reason.

During Jair Bolsonaro’s government, there was a 20% cut in the number of staff in the Brazilian government destined to conduct interviews with each refugee candidate, according to the president of Conare.

Today, the team has only 58 people to attend to the country.

For a foreigner to be considered a refugee in Brazil and have all his rights, he must present a formal request, which the Brazilian State will examine.

Last year, 60,000 people were recognized as refugees in the country. Between 2011 and 2021, Brazil received almost 300,000 applications for shelter. However, the queue has never been so long.

According to Sheila de Carvalho, laws and ordinances were also passed, making working with foreigners more difficult. But she highlighted the resistance of the Conare members.

And the foreigners keep coming? Yes. According to the government, about 800 people cross the border into Brazil a week.

“One of the biggest challenges is to create a refugee policy,” she said.

What exists in the country today is only a response to crises and emergencies, as in the case of Haiti and, more recently, with the Venezuelans.

“We want a national and integrated policy between the federal and state governments,” Carvalho explained.

An especially complicated crisis is the one the Brazilian authorities are experiencing with the Afghans.

Conare announced last week that, to prevent Afghans from camping at the Guarulhos International Airport, a commission will be established to deal with this flow of people.

Brazil has started to give humanitarian visas to those who wish to flee the Taliban regime. So far, more than 3,800 Afghans have landed in the country.

But many have left Brazil, and many families use the territory to reach other countries, mainly the US.