São Paulo airport has 291 immigrants detained in restricted area
Hundreds of immigrants, most of them from India, are currently detained in a restricted area at Guarulhos International Airport. The information was confirmed by the São Paulo Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, which called an emergency meeting for this Thursday (Jun. 13) with the Federal Police, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the GRU Airport concessionaire, and Brazil’s national drug regulator Anvisa.
The restricted area is a section of the terminal where immigrants without visas or documents, and who have not officially entered the country, are held. This is where foreigners wait to either be granted refuge or repatriated to their country of origin.
The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has declared the situation a "new humanitarian crisis at the airport," noting that Guarulhos Airport recently experienced a significant influx of individuals from Afghanistan and Vietnam.
Prosecutor's Office representatives, who were in Guarulhos on Tuesday (11), reported that approximately 400 immigrants were in the immigration area. In addition to Indians, there are citizens from other countries, such as Nepal.
There is still no confirmation regarding the reasons these immigrants left for Brazil. Initial information suggests that they arrived in Guarulhos on different flights over the past few days and are encountering difficulties with entry procedures. These issues include failures in the National System for Processing Refugee Applications (Sisconare), the digital platform used for registering refugee applications in the country.
Ministry of Justice
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security stated that it is working to resolve "temporary instabilities" affecting the tool. These issues are attributed to "updates and improvements made to other electronic systems of the ministry, to which Sisconare is linked."
The ministry also reported that on Wednesday (12), there were 291 immigrants detained in the restricted area, described as "travelers who, for the most part, have already expressed their intention to apply for refuge and should have their process followed up in the coming days."
According to the ministry, it is working with the Federal Police to "accelerate and maximize the capacity for processing applications, in accordance with the rules on refuge and respect for human rights."
Scenario
Letícia Carvalho, from Missão Paz, a philanthropic institution that supports and welcomes immigrants and refugees, told TV Brasil that she was also at the airport on Wednesday (12), in contact with these immigrants. According to her, the scenario is complex and has also been observed in other parts of the world but has been aggravated in Brazil by the instability in Sisconare.
Last year, hundreds of Vietnamese faced a similar situation when they were detained in the airport's immigration area. The suspicion at the time was that networks of coyotes and smugglers were behind the migratory flow, aiming to use Brazil as a gateway to the United States.
*TV Brasil reporter Gabriel Brum contributed to this article.
