Post #1: Brazil & Border Control
Brazil is recently known around the world for being the latest host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. With hosting such a large and widely watched event, came more exposure into the country’s issues and current affairs. Many people learned that Brazil has been having continuing issues with poverty, poor health, crime, and several other problems. Over the past three years, Brazil has also been dealing with the growing issue on the border controls between Venezuela. This issue is causing strong disagreements on how to handle the large inflow of migrants into Brazil and whether to close the border or not.
With many people trying to flee the economic and political strife happening in Venezuela, Brazil has had to deal with hundreds of migrants crossing the border each day. “Authorities in the state of Roraima in Brazil’s Amazon region say some 500 Venezuelans cross the border every day” (“Venezuela crisis: Brazil briefly shuts border to migrants”, 2018). The increase in Brazil’s population is putting pressure on border towns to support the many migrants that are looking for any quick escape from Venezuela’s disintegrating living conditions.
The increased number of migrants are due to several contributing factors from the poor economic conditions. Some factors include hyperinflation, power cuts, food and medicine shortages. Inflation has been on the rise with no signs of slowing down. Prices are doubling on average every 26 days, making it hard for basic needs to be met (“How Venezuela’s crisis developed and drove out millions of people”, 2018).
Most Americans would find it hard to imagine what living in conditions like these would be like. How is a family supposed to survive more than a few weeks with costs as high as these? This leaves them with almost no option but to emigrate and better support themselves in a new country.
After reading into these issues in Venezuela, I can see where many people would feel the need to leave to another country for better living conditions. If little action is being made to make progress, it would be frustrating to go about daily life in conditions like those. Many people are blaming the government and Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro, for how bad the situation has gotten. There was even a recent assassination attempt on their President that has caused tensions to rise even more within the country.
On the other hand, I understand where Brazil is conflicted on whether to let thousands of refugees in or to close their borders. “It is not justified to take the easy path to ‘close the doors’ because of difficulties in hosting refugees,” Supreme Court justice Rosa Weber said (“Venezuela crisis: Brazil briefly shuts border to migrants”, 2018). It may be a challenge to take on so many refugees and to accommodate for them in beneficial ways, but it seems almost necessary to help. Even though there are not many places for refugees to move into, the life in Brazil seems better to them and they are willing to live in these poor situations. The local Brazilians should still try to help in any way they can.
The Venezuelan government needs to put forth stronger efforts to stabilize their economy, otherwise the situations at hand could get worse. More attacks could continue to happen around the country and at border camps. This could strain the relationship with Colombia and Brazil more than it already has too. In Brazil, they have sent more security enforcements to their borders knowing there is violence coming with people migrating. There is tension at the borders, but the military enforcements help improve the situations.
Today, the debate still continues on whether to close the borders or leave them open. There are pros and cons to every situation and in this one, it is especially hard. These migrants are suffering from a humanitarian crisis that is out of their control, but there is no great solution to help sustain this many migrants as of right now.
So far, Brazil has kept their borders open to Venezuelans and I think it should continue that way until conditions improve in Venezuela. Brazil should remain helping the refugees in the best way they can and still work to come up with better solutions to accommodate them all. They should work to make the food supply in border towns sufficient and come up with some more simple living accommodations for migrant families. The transition into a new life is hard for these refugees, but Brazil should also work on getting these families and individuals dispersed around the country. This would release some of the pressure off of border towns and allow the refugees to settle into a new life somewhere else in the country. Hopefully with time this situation will improve for both, Brazil and Venezuela.
Sources
“How Venezuela’s crisis developed and drove out millions of people” (August 22, 2018). BBC News. retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36319877
“Venezuela crisis: Brazil briefly shuts border to migrants” (August 7, 2018). BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-45093581
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woa3AUFafCw
