Carlo Carmim
Lula’s coalition government has continued and advanced many of the policies of the previous far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro. Despite a more inclusive and progressive rhetoric, what we see in practice, on a daily basis, is a brutal continuation of policies that perpetuate socioeconomic inequality, foment the division of the working class, and intensify exploitation and oppression.
A clear example of how the Lula government does not represent a break with the previous government is the way refugees are treated when they disembark at the country’s largest airport, São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport.
To make matters worse, the Lula government went further and now, through the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, it recently established a rule that prevents people without a visa from requesting asylum upon disembarking in Brazil. The Lula government is closing its doors to refugees.
This worsens an already deplorable situation.
Hundreds of refugees, many of them children and pregnant women, are in a restricted area awaiting the deliberate slowness of the Brazilian immigration bureaucracy in processing their asylum requests.
These refugees, of various nationalities, but mostly from Asia and Africa, are in an extremely precarious situation with clear violations of their human rights. They remain in limbo for an indefinite period of time, crowded into a space with no privacy, without adequate facilities for long-term stays: without beds, blankets, access to a shower, and prohibited from having access to other spaces.
In early August, a refugee from Ghana died while living in these deplorable conditions imposed by the Brazilian government. As if it were not enough that they had fled situations of extreme suffering in their countries of origin — often caused by the abominable direct actions of US imperialism — upon arriving in Brazil, they still go through this agony. By tightening immigration laws, Lula and his broad-based government are throwing more salt into an open wound.
We need the working class, social movements, and students to mobilise to demand that the Brazilian government immediately revoke this despicable regulation and respect the international conventions on refugee protection to which it is a signatory; to stop imposing unnecessary suffering on innocent people who deserve to be treated with respect, dignity, and acceptance.
Only through mobilisation will we be able to make Brazil a welcoming country and ensure that no human being is considered illegal, whether they have documents or not.
The author is a Marx21 sympathiser who lives in Brazil.
