São Paulo – Syria has the highest number of refugees living in Brazil, according to the report Asylum in Numbers, released this Wednesday (11) by the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE), a body of Brazil’s Ministry of Justice.
Last year, CONARE recognized 587 refugees, from which 310 were Syrians. In the last seven years, they totaled 2,771 people among the 10,145 recognized by Brazil as refugees. Currently, over 5,100 of these people remain in Brazilian territory with Syrians accounting for 35% of the group.
The country has been at war for seven years and Brazil was one of the countries that opened its doors to the war’s refugees. According to data from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), since the beginning of the conflict, half million people have been killed in Syria.
According to CONARE, there are, currently, 86,000 asylum requests in Brazil. Venezuelans top the requests ranking, with 33% of the total. Up to now, Brazil has only granted asylum to 18 Venezuelans.
Last year, Venezuelans led in the number of asylum requests in Brazil with 17,865 requests, or 53% of the total of 33,866 requests. After Venezuela, came Cuba, Haiti and Angola.
Despite being granted asylum, many people disappear from the list after a couple of years. According to CONARE, the report doesn’t go into details on the reasons for this, but the possibilities are, among others, the move to another country, naturalization as Brazilians or termination requests. With information from Agência Brasil.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani