By ABr

By Leandro Melito

By June this year, close to 25 thousand Venezuelans have applied for refuge in Brazil, according to data from the Justice Ministry. The figure represents a 26.6% growth from last year.

In Roraima, Venezuelans’ main route into the country, 18,374 applications were filed in the first half year—a number higher than all 17,865 requests made throughout 2017 all across Brazil.

Amazonas, with 4,918 applications, followed by São Paulo (287), Ceará (226), and Rio de Janeiro (91) were the other Brazilian states with the highest number of Venezuelan refuge applicants.

Haitians

The second nationality with the highest number of refuge applications in Brazil in the first half year is that of Haitians, with 2,484 requests—higher than the total last year (2,362). Immigrants from this country—where Brazil conducted a peace mission for 13 years, ending in October, 2017—made the highest number of requests in 2014: 16,779.

The highest amount of refuge applications filed by Haitians in the first six months of 2018 was registered in the state of São Paulo (863), followed by Santa Catarina (578), Rio Grande do Sul (281), Paraná (246), and Amazonas (153).