Brazil will implement new restrictions for certain Asian nationals entering the country as a transit point to reach the U.S. and Canada, announced the Justice Ministry’s press office on Wednesday. This policy specifically targets migrants from visa-required Asian countries and excludes nationals from countries already exempt from Brazilian visas, as well as U.S. and European citizens, who generally don’t need visas to enter Brazil.
The change follows a Federal Police investigation revealing that some migrants, particularly from India, Nepal, and Vietnam, purchase flights with layovers at São Paulo’s international airport, where they stay and later begin their migration journey north. Official documents show that over 70% of asylum seekers at the airport come from these Asian nations, with African countries such as Somalia, Cameroon, Ghana, and Ethiopia making up the remaining 30%.
According to Federal Police reports, Guarulhos International Airport has seen significant disruptions from the influx of migrants since last year. These travelers are reportedly utilizing a risky route from São Paulo to Acre, a western state bordering Peru, before continuing through Central America to the U.S. southern border. Starting next week, travelers without visas will need to either continue their journey by air or return to their home countries.
Growth in Migrant Arrivals
An Associated Press investigation in July noted a steady flow of migrants, including those from Vietnam and India, passing through Brazil’s Amazon region. Many migrants returning to Acre were reportedly waiting out U.S. policy shifts. Brazil’s new guidelines will not affect the nearly 500 migrants currently camped at São Paulo’s airport.
Remullo Diniz, coordinator of Gefron, Acre’s border operations police, said the decision came after discussions with U.S. diplomats about the rising number of undocumented migrants from various Asian nations. According to Diniz, many of these migrants enter with either no documents or false ones, raising concerns over security and an increase in “coyote” networks trafficking drugs and unaccompanied minors.
Meanwhile, the Federal Prosecutors’ Office issued a statement Wednesday addressing the rising number of migrants arriving on LATAM Airlines flights and the strain this has placed on Brazil’s migration system. Authorities plan to urge airlines to provide essential supplies to migrants awaiting refugee status decisions.
Brazil’s federal police have reported receiving 9,082 asylum requests from January through July 15 of this year — more than double the requests in all of 2023 and the highest in over a decade. Although only a few hundred applicants seek documentation to stay in Brazil, authorities suspect that a robust migration route, marked by migrant smuggling and human trafficking, is at play. But reports of migrants seeking refugee status as a means to use Brazil as a way station 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.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decided in January 2023, in the early days of his administration, to bring his country back to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, an intergovernmental agreement.
His administration has kept humanitarian visas, but guidelines for the concession of those has become more restrictive under his administration.
