From the news desk

Syrian diaspora growing in Brazil

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The largest concentration of Arabs outside the Middle East is in Brazil, which has 9 million Brazilians of Arab ancestry, according to Saudi Aramco World. Of these 9 million Arabs, seven million are of Lebanese ancestry making Brazil’s population of Lebanese greater than that of Lebanon itself.

Currently, the refugees that arrive in Brazil come from Syria and Congo. There are nearly 50, 000 foreigners who are refugees and asylum seekers. Syrians usually fly down to Brazil because often they have relatives in Brazil from previous diasporas (Israeli-Lebanese war) or migrations on early 20th century (when Brazil was a great producer of coffee and sought to work in the fields).

Refugees that arrive from Congo and other places in Africa, such Liberia, arrive through boat. These refugees do not have the available resources to fund a plane ticket so they jump on the first cargo ship they see, fleeing from war or political persecution. They arrive on the port of Santos (in Brazil) lost (sometimes not even knowing which country they are), poor and without speaking Portuguese.

In 1997, Brazil created and state organization called CONARE (Comitê Nacional para os Refugiados) which is responsible for judging conceding the status of refugee for each asylum seeker arrived in the country. To request a refugee status, a Catholic organization called “Cáritas” helps the asylum seekers providing judicial consultancy for free. After these asylum seekers legally become refugees, there is this other organization called ADUS, which helps them to integrate into society teaching Portuguese and finding jobs for free.

The support from UNHCR in the whole process is financial, but the UNHRC has an operating office in Brazil.
Sidarta Martins a lawyer working at ADUS says that the largest concentration of refugees in Brazil is concentrated in Sao Paolo. Sao Paolo is a city located in south eastern part Brazil and is its most populous city.

“It’s hard for the refugees to integrate into Brazilian society mainly because of the language,” Martins explained.

“Refugees do not speak Portuguese and the rest of the population does not speak English, French or Arabic”.

“Brazil has a huge population of people that are descendants from Arabs from Lebanon and Syria and that connection is still working,” Martins went further.

Brazil isn’t exactly the closest country to escape to and now there has been a resurgence in the influx of refugees. Before the recent of refugees into Brazil there was a large immigration of people a century ago. These people were able to travel via ships to the Americas seeking economic opportunities. Even though they are Brazilian they would still indicate that they are of Arab lineage.

Persons travelling from Syria will have contacts with distant family in the region which will offer them assistance, therefore those who can afford it will be able to travel to Brazil in search of refuge.

“The number of persons applying for refugee status has reached almost 10 000, in previous years maybe 500 refugees would apply for status in Brazil,” Martins continued.

Brazil itself suffers from a high unemployment rate, but yet the government is willing to accept refugees that flee from persecution and conflict. However, little money can be given to refugees per day and they do suffer as a result. Organisations such as ADUS will help refugees by offering them Portuguese lessons and aiding them in finding employment.

“We (Adus) have different lines of work, one is to advocate the refugee cause with government with the private sector and with the media, the other is to integrate the refugees,” Martins added.

Where Brazil seems like an unlikely country for Syrian refugees because of the distance of the country with respect to it, it is now a more imaginable possibility. The Syrian crisis has been described as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in recent history and the likelihood that the war will end soon diminishes by the day.

Many countries are now having to open their borders to those seeking asylum and as long as the war continues people who have no other options but to leave Syria and ask another country for asylum in hopes of building a new life there. VOC (Umarah Hartley)


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1 comment

  1. Very interesting how a non-Muslim country like Brazil will take in these Muslim refugees. I don’t see Saudi Arabia or the GCC countries willing to open their doors to their fellow Muslims. I think its fair to say that these Arab countries don’t represent Islam any longer.

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