The Government of Acre announced this Wednesday (9) that it will deactivate the shelter for immigrants, mostly Haitians, from the city of Brasileia, on the border with Bolivia and Peru. The foreigners will be transferred to the premises of an agricultural exhibition park in the capital Rio Branco, which is 231 kilometers away from the border.
The decision to deactivate the shelter, according to the State Secretary for Justice and Human Rights, Nilson Mourão, was motivated by the overcrowding of foreigners in the place and the dissatisfaction of the population of Brasileia with the uncontrolled arrival of foreigners seeking refuge on the Brazilian border.
Human rights organizations and the Federal Public Ministry criticized the shelter’s facilities. The immigrants sleep on mattresses on the floor and there is a bad smell due to lack of cleanliness.
This week, the NGO Conectas Human Rights criticized the accommodation, saying it was a “chaotic situation”, according to an article published by the EFE agency.
President Dilma Rousseff was consulted on the decision to close the Brasileia shelter by Governor Tião Viana (PT), according to the agency’s report. Real Amazon .
“The governor understood that the share of solidarity, of generosity of the population of Brasileia was given. Immigrants keep arriving, the situation at the shelter is unsustainable and he understood that he should deactivate the shelter and transfer it to Rio Branco,” said secretary Nilson Mourão.
The Secretariat of Justice and Human Rights says that the Brasileia shelter, with the capacity to accommodate 250 people, is overcrowded, with more than 750 immigrants, 525 of whom are Haitians and another 225 Senegalese and Dominican foreigners, numbers raised this Wednesday (9). But the place accommodated 2,008 Haitians last January, when 2,600 foreigners remained stranded in the city because of the interdiction of the BR 364, which gives access to Porto Velho (RO), and where they left for cities in the South and Southeast of the country. .
The number of immigrants began to drop at the shelter, according to the secretariat, since last week, after the state government began to remove them from the city, paying for bus tickets and transporting them on chartered planes from Rio Branco to Porto Velho. Even so, foreigners continue to arrive. It’s less than 50 a day.
Nilson Mourão said that the shelter in Brasileia will not be closed anyway.” When we have the shelter in Rio Branco capable of receiving them, we will move them to the capital. Our intention is for them to arrive in Rio Branco, so we will change the logistics without creating a social situation, as is the case with Brasileia, which has crossed the line and that is why we took this action”, he said.
Immigrants sleep on mattresses on the floor and Brasileia is in a social emergency. (Photos: Luciano Pontes/Secom/Public Photos)
The secretary said that the shelter at the Marechal Castelo Branco Exhibition Park, in the capital, will have the capacity to receive 200 people, but each immigrant will be accommodated for a maximum period of 10 days. The displacement of immigrants to the new shelter begins this Saturday (12).
In a note released this Wednesday, the Government of Acre informed that with the new accommodations in the exhibition park in Rio Branco, the flow of immigrants will be controlled daily. Health and documentation actions will be intensified.
This year, the Marechal Castelo Branco Exhibition Park has already housed families affected by the flooding of the Acre River.
According to the note, the federal government will install shelters in São Paulo, Florianópolis (SC), Porto Alegre (RS) and Curitiba (PR) with the aim of strengthening the legal entry of immigrants. “These strategic cities have international flights, in addition to offering more jobs to immigrants”, says the government.
With 22 thousand inhabitants, Brasileia is in social emergency due to the uncontrolled arrival of immigrants. From 2010 to March this year, the city received 21,385 foreigners, of which 19,650 are Haitians, 1,550 Senegalese and 185 Dominicans, according to a survey by the agency. Real Amazon.
This Wednesday (9), the Federal Police updated the data on the arrival of Haitians in Brazil from 2010 to March 2014. In this case, according to the report’s survey, the number of Haitians rose from 40,000 to 42,725, with 19,650 in Acre and 13,075 in Amazonas.
