85,746 people are still waiting for Brazil’s response on their asylum request

                          Brazil registered a record number of refugee requests in 2017. According to the document “Refugee In Numbers”, released by the National Committee for Refugees of Brazil (CONARE), the country received 33.866 requests last year, the triple of the number received in 2016, which was 10.308. Most of the requests came from Venezuelans, 17.865 requests, 53% of the total number. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ report titled “Global Trends – Forced Displacement in 2017”, Brazil is the country with more requests in Latin America in 2017.

 

                          In ten years, Brazil received 126.102 refugee requests. Today, 10.264 people are refugees in the country. 85,746 people are still waiting for a decision – a number that puts Brazil in the fifth position in terms of refugee request, only behind United States, Germany, Turkey, South Africa and Italy. 587 people were recognized as refugees last year and the majority of them, 310 people, were Syrians. The CONARE’s report also provides some details of refugees’ profile. For instance,  71% os the refugees who live in Brazil are men and 44% are between 30 and 59 years-old.

 

                         According to UNHCR, “the complex socioeconomic and political situation in Venezuela has caused more than 1.5 million Venezuelans to move to neighbouring countries and beyond”, and Brazil is one of the primary destinies. Although Brazilian government was not expecting such a high number of refugees, the UNHCR and its partners have been working with Brazilian authorities to process all the requests and give asylum to the Venezuelans who had no option but flee.

 

By Raiane Cardoso (Brazil/UFRJ)

The full documente can be accessed here: http://www.justica.gov.br/news/de-10-1-mil-refugiados-apenas-5-1-mil-continuam-no-brasil/refugio-em-numeros_1104.pdf

http://www.unhcr.org/5b27be547.pdf