(Bloomberg) -- Brazil will start restricting the entry of citizens from countries including China and India in a bid to crack down on people arriving in the South American nation and then trying to illegally migrate to the US and Canada.
The move, which starts Monday, will affect visitors who require visas to enter Brazil and don’t have Brazil as the final destination on their air tickets, according to a document from Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security that was seen by Bloomberg News.
It targets migrants who are supposed to transit in Brazil’s international airports, but abandon the final leg of the journey, stay in the international areas of the airports, apply for refugee status and then seek to advance northward to the US and Canada.
More than 70% of requests for refugee status at the airports come from people holding Indian, Nepalese or Vietnamese nationalities, according to the Associated Press which first reported the news. It added the move does not apply to people from Asian countries who can enter Brazil without a visa, as well as US citizens and nationals from European countries that have a visa exemption.
“Passengers who remain in the international transit area at São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport, or other airports with international connections, will have to continue their journey or return to their place of origin,” the document said.
“The decision was made after the Federal Police identified that Brazil had become a route for criminal organizations that smuggle immigrants and traffic in people,” it said, adding authorities have seen a surge in arrivals from some Asian nations.
The tightening follows Ecuador’s move in June to temporarily suspend a visa agreement with China. Some Chinese nationals have been crossing the US border illegally after trekking through Latin America, motivated by economic opportunities.
“An irregular migration route has been consolidated in Brazil, with a strong presence of actors involved in migrant smuggling and human trafficking; with obvious fraudulent use of the refuge institute,” the Brazilian ministry said, according to the document.
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