São Paulo – The number of Syrians asking for asylum in Brazil is increasing and the Arab nation might become the main source of solicitors in the country until 2015, according to information released this Monday (31) by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) representative, Andrés Ramirez, during a workshop yesterday on the theme at the Secretariat for Justice and Defense of Citizenship in the State of São Paulo.
“[The number of Syrian solicitors] is increasing daily”, said Ramirez. Stricken by civil war for over three years, Syria is today the biggest issuer of refugees in the world. A total of 2.6 million people are estimated to have fled the country due to the conflict and most of them are accommodated in neighboring nations in Middle East.
As of now, the total of Syrian refugees in Brazil is small – 333 people -, but the tendency is for it to increase. “There is a big colony of Syrians in Brazil and the solicitors take that into consideration”, said Ramirez. According to him, the Syrians should surpass the Colombians in the number of asylum seekers in the country.
Journalist Mahmoud, from Homs, is one of the Syrians who has been granted refugee status. He said he was in Brazil for tourism and in search of a post-graduate course when the conflict broke out. “As a journalist I used to write claiming for democracy in the country”, he said. “I was black-listed and the embassy did not renew my passport, and I was in Brazil illegally”, he added.
Mahmoud said he looked for Caritas Archdiocese of São Paulo, an organization linked to the Catholic Church and partner of UNHCR in receiving refugees. The entity helped him obtain refugee status and the necessary documents to stay in Brazil, a process which took him from six to nine months, according to him. The journalist pointed out that today he writes to some international newspapers and is a special student in the post-graduate course in Foreign Affairs at the University of São Paulo (USP, in the Portuguese acronym).
Even after legalizing his situation, Mahmoud said, a little in English, a little in Portuguese, that “it is hard for a refugee to adapt”. He said that the international community has the responsibility of finding a solution for the conflict in Syria, for the problem tends to become more and more a global issue with the great flux of refugees, an eventual rise of terrorism and the humanitarian crises in large scale.
Recognition
The solicitor is recognized as a refugee in Brazil by the National Committee for Refugees (Conare), a body linked to the Ministry of Justice. According to Ramirez, the percentage of recognition in Brazil is 36%, regarded as high for Latin America. The total of refugees, however, is small, 5,200 people currently, but the UNHCR’s representative said that the number might reach 12,000 this year. “The number of people requesting asylum in Brazil is increasing a lot”, he pointed out.
He stressed, though, that, as it is far from the conflicting areas, the operations in Brazil receive a limited budget. In this sense, the UNCHR depends heavily on partners such as Caritas and the Secretariat for Justice itself. In fact, the state government body allowed the UN agency to open up an office in São Paulo in its premises. The organization used to be only in Brasília. “Most refugees arrive through São Paulo”, said Ramirez, explaining the reason why it was necessary to have a representative in São Paulo. The concession of the office was formalized during the event this Monday.
But why is Brazil sought out by asylum seekers? Ramirez explained that there is a higher flux of refugees in the world as a whole, especially due to “a mix of old and new conflicts”. Furthermore, the country has been more internationally prominent in the past years. “The solicitor knows Brazil has good practices in regard to asylum,” he claimed.
This opinion is seconded by the secretary of Justice in the state, Eloísa Arruda. “The number of asylum requests in Brazil has increased because the country has welcomed the immigrants”, she points out, remembering that Brazil is a nation created by immigrants.
Likewise, Senator Aloysio Nunes Ferreira (PSDB-SP), said that, currently, the country has a tradition like the one France had in the 70’s, of welcoming the political exiles. Then a militant of the Communist Party, he himself has lived eleven years as a refugee in the European nation during the military dictatorship. The refugee workshop was part of a series of events to remember the 50 years of the military coup in 1964, which buried the democracy in Brazil during two decades.
“In France, similar to what we have in Brazil today, the refugee had the state’s protection”, pointed out the congressman. This means that the foreigner not only has the right to stay, but also access to public services and can look for a job as if he was a Brazilian citizen.
Tragedy in the family
The young man Louison, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, managed to finish high school in Brazil. The 18-year-old boy’s story is tragic. He says that his father, a doctor and pastor, joined the government-opposition Party and refused to ask for votes for the ruling Party in his congregation. One day, during the afternoon snack, the family’s house was broken into by official forces and they were all taken under arrest.
“They broke into the house and captured everybody, my father, my mother, my siblings and I”, he said. “They took us towards the Congo River, they got my father out of the car and took him away. I only heard the gunshot, they took my father and came back without him”, he said.
The others were taken to the jail in Kinshasa, where Louison’s mother died of a stroke. The young man managed to flee and boarded a ship without knowing the destination. He disembarked in Brazil in April last year. By means of the Caritas, he was taken in by the country and finished high school. He was able to learn his young brother’s whereabouts, but does not know about his sister. Today, he speaks Portuguese, besides his native French and English, and showed a great sense of humor, in spite of his tough past.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
