Brazil to Impose Entry Restrictions on Some Asian Nationals to Stop Migration to US and Canada

Brazil will begin imposing restrictions on the entry of some foreigners from Asia who use the country as a launching point to migrate to the United States and Canada, the justice ministry’s press office said Wednesday.

The move, which starts on Monday, will affect migrants from Asian countries who require visas to remain in Brazil. It does not apply to people from Asian countries currently exempt from visas to Brazil. US citizens and many European nationals also do not require visas for Brazil.

A Federal Police investigation has shown these migrants often buy flights with layovers in Sao Paulo’s international airport, en route to other destinations, but stay in Brazil as a place from where they then begin their journey north, according to official documents provided to The Associated Press.

More than 70% of requests for refuge at the airport come from people with either Indian, Nepalese or Vietnamese nationalities, one of the documents says.

Starting next week, travelers without visas will either have to continue their journey by plane or return to their country of origin, the ministry said.

A report signed by federal police investigator Marinho da Silva Rezende Júnior informs the justice ministry that since the beginning of last year there has been “great turmoil” due to the influx of migrants at the airport in Guarulhos, a city located in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area.

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One of the documents says Brazil’s federal police received 9,082 requests for refuge this year through July 15. That is more than the double the amount for the entire 2023, and the most in over a decade, according to the figures.

However, federal police said that just a few hundred of those sought to get documents to remain in Brazil.

The same document says federal police are convinced there is “a consolidated route of irregular migration in Brazil, with a strong presence of people who are involved in migrant smuggling and human trafficking, with an evident fraudulent use of the application for refugee status.”

Brazil has historically welcomed refugees, particularly Afghans in recent years, regardless of ideological leanings of the Latin American country’s leaders.

But reports of migrants seeking refugee status as a means to use Brazil as a waystation has caused frustration in the government, particularly at a time when the system is burdened by many people from Haiti, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine seeking humanitarian visas.

Brazil granted 11,248 humanitarian visas to Afghans alone between between Sept. 2021 and April 2024, government figures show.

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