According to an official assessment, children experiencing the winter cold without blankets, restricted movement, no baths, and minimal food and water are among the irregular refugees being kept.
According to the Public Defender’s Office and papers seen by Reuters, hundreds of asylum seekers from India, Nepal, and Vietnam have been detained for weeks in dangerous conditions at Sao Paulo’s international airport, sleeping on the floor while they wait to enter Brazil.
According to an office official, a 39-year-old Ghanaian immigrant passed away two weeks ago from unspecified circumstances. It remained unclear if he passed away while being held at the airport or while traveling to the hospital.
According to the official, there were at least 666 undocumented migrants waiting to enter Brazil at Guarulhos airport without a visa. There was also the added concern that the government would tighten entrance requirements on Monday in an effort to limit the influx of foreign nationals using Brazil as a transit country to reach the US and Canada.
It is difficult for the asylum seekers to get food and drink because they are detained in a restricted location without access to a shower, and the official claimed that children and teenagers suffer the winter cold without blankets.
The Public Defender’s Office discovered that the migrants’ health was declining and that their human rights were being infringed.
The agency called on authorities to abide by Brazilian law based on the humanitarian principle of accepting refugees and not sending them back to their country of origin, and stated that conditions for the irregular migrants must be urgently improved while their status is being resolved.
Surge in international travel
Brazil’s public security ministry told Reuters on Wednesday that international visitors without a Brazilian visa who are going to another country must either go on to their destination or return home as of Monday.
According to a statement from the ministry, there has been a surge in foreign visitors to Brazil, especially from Asia, who are supposedly stopping over before continuing on to North America.
According to two files from authorities reviewed by Reuters and a senior police source, most of them travel north when they can. To enter Brazil, they apply for refugee status, claiming persecution and threats in their home countries.
According to the ministry, travelers who arrive in Sao Paulo without a visa will henceforth be prohibited from remaining in Brazil.
It was unclear if the new regulations would affect migrants who were already at the Sao Paulo airport or if they would just apply to new arrivals after the regulations take effect.
Experts in immigration are worried that the planned regulations would go against the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, to which Brazil is a party and which obliges nations to accept those who are in danger in their own country, regardless of whether they have legal status.
There will be no changes to Brazil’s policy regarding asylum seekers, according to Jean Uema, the president of the country’s refugee committee, who told Reuters that the regulations would only apply to Sao Paulo airport.
