Brazilian federal judge Helder Barreto has prohibited Venezuelan migrants from crossing the border into Brazil's northern state of Roraima, a spokesman for the regional judiciary said Monday.

Barreto ordered the border closed until the frontier state can create "humanitarian" conditions to receive the massive influx. His ruling only applies to Venezuelans, without affecting other nationalities, according to German news agency DPA.

Read more: Opinion: Venezuela on the verge of imploding

The injunction has yet to go into effect pending an appeal by Brazilian government lawyers. Hundreds of Venezuelans continued to walk across Brazil's northern border, a border official said.

Over the past three years, tens of thousands of Venezuelans have fled their country's economic and political turmoil, migrating to Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile and other countries in the region.

The mass migration of Venezuelans into Brazil has overwhelmed social services, causing a humanitarian crisis. Many of them are extremely poor and sleep on the streets or in hostels amid rising crime and prostitution.

Roraima's Governor Suely Campos has requested the closure of the state's border with Venezuela and has repeatedly protested against the presence of the migrants, saying they have brought public services to the brink of collapse. On Thursday, the state government decreed Venezuelans seeking medical or other social services would have to present a valid passport, which many of the migrants do not have.

Barreto ruled that such a measure was "discriminatory" and didn't align with Brazilian laws. He suspended a provision that would allow for the deportation or expulsion of Venezuelan migrants who committed illegal acts. He also ordered the vaccination of migrants admitted to Brazil.

But Barreto ordered the suspension of border crossings from Venezuela until the migrants can be redistributed throughout brazil as quickly as they enter the country.

The Brazilian Air Force began airlifting Venezuelan migrants from Roraima for resettlement in other Brazilian cities in accordance with recommendations by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHRC). However, more than 500 Venezuelans cross into Brazil per day on average, many of whom stay in Roraima because they cannot afford to move elsewhere.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian federal appeals court judge on Tuesday overturned a ruling barring Venezuelan immigrants fleeing economic and political turmoil from entering the country, the Solicitor General’s office, which had made the appeal, said.

On Sunday, a federal judge in the northern state of Roraima ordered the border closed until the state could create “humanitarian” conditions to receive a massive influx of Venezuelans, who have overwhelmed state social services and caused a growing humanitarian crisis.

Appeals court judge Kassio Marques acknowledged “grave violations of the public and judicial order,” but overturned the lower court’s ruling. He said the closure would not help to improve humanitarian conditions for Venezuelans fleeing their country, as the federal prosecutors and public defenders offices who brought the case had argued.

The Brasilia-based judge’s decision was cited in a statement by the Solicitor General’s office.

The federal police said on Tuesday that it never actually closed the frontier but had begun preparations for shutting it on Monday.

“Those measures were promptly suspended this morning, in the wake of the new judicial decision ... and the normal flow of Venezuelan immigrants was re-established,” the federal police said in a statement.

A state government official in Roraima said that although the federal police never closed the border, officers did momentarily stop Venezuelans entering.

“They only let pass those who had been granted asylum, residency or could prove they has passage out of the country,” the official told Reuters. “There was even a little protest.”

Nearly 33,000 Venezuelans had asked for asylum in Brazil as of April 30, while another 25,000 had entered the country by other means, including humanitarian visas, labor and migration visas, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

“In 2018, the number of asylum seekers from Venezuela is already larger than for the whole of 2017,” he said.

Venezuela is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, with people going short of food, medicines and other essentials, and periodic waves of protests against the country’s leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

In appealing Sunday’s ruling, the Solicitor General’s office said closing the border in Roraima would likely do little to stem the flow of Venezuelans, as the border is so extensive.

The Brazilian Air Force began flying Venezuelan immigrants in Roraima to other cities of Brazil in May and has so far flown more than 800 Venezuelans out of Boa Vista, the state capital.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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A Brazilian federal appeals court judge on Tuesday overturned a ruling barring Venezuelan immigrants fleeing economic and political turmoil from entering the country, the Solicitor General's office, which had made the appeal, said.

BRASILIA: A Brazilian federal appeals court judge on Tuesday overturned a ruling barring Venezuelan immigrants fleeing economic and political turmoil from entering the country, the Solicitor General's office, which had made the appeal, said.

On Sunday, a federal judge in the northern state of Roraima ordered the border closed until the state could create "humanitarian" conditions to receive a massive influx of Venezuelans, who have overwhelmed state social services and caused a growing humanitarian crisis.

Appeals court judge Kassio Marques acknowledged "grave violations of the public and judicial order," but overturned the lower court's ruling. He said the closure would not help to improve humanitarian conditions for Venezuelans fleeing their country, as the federal prosecutors and public defenders offices who brought the case had argued.

The Brasilia-based judge's decision was cited in a statement by the Solicitor General's office.

The federal police said on Tuesday that it never actually closed the frontier but had begun preparations for shutting it on Monday.

"Those measures were promptly suspended this morning, in the wake of the new judicial decision ... and the normal flow of Venezuelan immigrants was re-established," the federal police said in a statement.

A state government official in Roraima said that although the federal police never closed the border, officers did momentarily stop Venezuelans entering.

"They only let pass those who had been granted asylum, residency or could prove they has passage out of the country," the official told Reuters. "There was even a little protest."

Nearly 33,000 Venezuelans had asked for asylum in Brazil as of April 30, while another 25,000 had entered the country by other means, including humanitarian visas, labour and migration visas, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

"In 2018, the number of asylum seekers from Venezuela is already larger than for the whole of 2017," he said.

Venezuela is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, with people going short of food, medicines and other essentials, and periodic waves of protests against the country's leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

In appealing Sunday's ruling, the Solicitor General's office said closing the border in Roraima would likely do little to stem the flow of Venezuelans, as the border is so extensive.

The Brazilian Air Force began flying Venezuelan immigrants in Roraima to other cities of Brazil in May and has so far flown more than 800 Venezuelans out of Boa Vista, the state capital.</s>BRASILIA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A Brazilian federal appeals court judge on Tuesday overturned a ruling barring Venezuelan immigrants fleeing economic and political turmoil from entering the country, the Solicitor General's office, which had made the appeal, said.

On Sunday, a federal judge in the northern state of Roraima ordered the border closed until the state could create "humanitarian" conditions to receive a massive influx of Venezuelans, who have overwhelmed state social services and caused a growing humanitarian crisis.

Appeals court judge Kassio Marques acknowledged "grave violations of the public and judicial order," but overturned the lower court's ruling. He said the closure would not help to improve humanitarian conditions for Venezuelans fleeing their country, as the federal prosecutors and public defenders offices who brought the case had argued.

The Brasilia-based judge's decision was cited in a statement by the Solicitor General's office.

The federal police said on Tuesday that it never actually closed the frontier but had begun preparations for shutting it on Monday.

"Those measures were promptly suspended this morning, in the wake of the new judicial decision ... and the normal flow of Venezuelan immigrants was re-established," the federal police said in a statement.

A state government official in Roraima said that although the federal police never closed the border, officers did momentarily stop Venezuelans entering.

"They only let pass those who had been granted asylum, residency or could prove they has passage out of the country," the official told Reuters. "There was even a little protest."

Nearly 33,000 Venezuelans had asked for asylum in Brazil as of April 30, while another 25,000 had entered the country by other means, including humanitarian visas, labor and migration visas, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

"In 2018, the number of asylum seekers from Venezuela is already larger than for the whole of 2017," he said.

Venezuela is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, with people going short of food, medicines and other essentials, and periodic waves of protests against the country's leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

In appealing Sunday's ruling, the Solicitor General's office said closing the border in Roraima would likely do little to stem the flow of Venezuelans, as the border is so extensive.

The Brazilian Air Force began flying Venezuelan immigrants in Roraima to other cities of Brazil in May and has so far flown more than 800 Venezuelans out of Boa Vista, the state capital. (Additional reporting by Staphanie Nebehay in Geneva Writing by Gabriel Stargardter Editing by Frances Kerry)</s>A judge in Brazil has ordered a block on Venezuelans crossing the border into Brazil to flee their country's economic and political turmoil.

However, federal lawyers have appealed the ruling, and officials said the border was still open Monday.

Federal Judge Helder Barreto ordered the border closed in the northern state of Roraima. He said the migrants' entry should be suspended until the state can reach equilibrium between the arrival of migrants and their exit to other parts of Brazil.

The court order has the backing of Roraima Governor Suely Campos, who said the state has been asking the country's Supreme Court to close the border.

State officials say an estimated 500 Venezuelans cross into Brazil every day, and many stay in Roraima because they cannot afford to move on.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are estimated to have moved to Roraima in the last three years, overwhelming the state's social services.

Brazilian President Michel Temer has said on multiple occasions that Brazil's border with Venezuela would not be closed.

More than 1 million people have left Venezuela since 2015, fleeing an economic and political crisis in their home country. Many have gone to Colombia, but authorities there and elsewhere in South America are tightening their borders, making Portuguese-speaking Brazil more attractive to the refugees.</s>A Brazilian federal judge has ordered the country's border with Venezuela to be closed to migrants fleeing that country's economic meltdown, though the frontier has remained open while the government appeals the decision.

Judge Helder Barreto ordered the border closed until the northern state of Roraima can create the "humanitarian" conditions to handle the influx, Reuters reported. State officials told the news agency that more than 500 Venezuelans cross into Roraima on average every day.

The incursion has overwhelmed social services and led to homeless families sleeping in the streets amid rising crime and prostitution, among other concerns. The migration also has triggered an outbreak of measles; many Venezuelan refugees have not been immunized due to the breakdown of the health system there.

As part of his ruling, Barreto ordered the vaccination of all Venezuelans admitted to Brazil. He also suspended a local measure permitting the expulsion of Venezuelans who broke the law, as well as a decree requiring Venezuelan immigrants seeking medical and social services to have a valid passport.

However, he also ordered that the entry of Venezuelan refugees be halted until Roraima has reached an equal number of people entering the state and leaving for other parts of Brazil.

The Brazilian Air Force has flown approximately 820 Venezuelans out of the state's capital, Reuters added.

A border official told the news agency that hundreds of Venezuelan refugees continued to cross the border Monday.

Click for more from Reuters.</s>Brazil has re-opened its border to Venezuelans fleeing economic and political turmoil, just hours after a judge ordered the frontier to be closed amid a growing regional migration crisis.

Within 48 hours, three different courts issued contradictory rulings on the border, as Brazilian authorities struggle to deal with the growing humanitarian emergency in the north-western state of Roraima.

According to the UN, thousands of Venezuelans are crossing into neighbouring countries every day to escape rampant crime and political violence, a cratering economy and severe shortages of food and medicines.

Nearly 57,000 Venezuelans have requested refugee status or residency in Brazil since 2015 and 11,000 have become residents, according to figures released in June by the Federal Police.

Tens of thousands have settled in Roraima, where the influx has overwhelmed social services.

Around 3,000 to 4,000 Venezuelans are sleeping on the streets of Pacaraima, a town of 12,000 people, said the Rev Jesus Bobadilla, a Catholic priest in the town whose church gives breakfasts to thousands of Venezuelans five days a week.

“The situation is very confused. They come hungry – and motivated by hunger,” he said.



The legal battle over the border began in April, when Roraima’s governor, Suely Campos, launched a suit at Brazil’s supreme court requesting the closure of the border. 



On 1 August, Campos issued a decree ordering Venezuelans to show their passports before accessing health and security services – and police to deport any migrants who committed crimes.

Her decree was challenged by local prosecutors and the public defence office, but in agreeing their request, a federal judge also ordered the border shut on Monday. That ruling was in turn overruled on Tuesday, and the border was opened once again.

Adding to the confusion, a supreme court judge rejected Campos’s request late on Monday night – but did not revoke the order to close the border.

Bobadilla said Campos’s campaign to close the border was politically motivated: she is standing for re-election in October, and the migration crisis has fed growing animosity towards incomers in Roraima, Brazil’s most sparsely-populated state. 



“There is a lot of xenophobia,” said Bobadilla.

His church serves breakfasts to up to 1,800 Venezuelans a day, holds classes for indigenous Venezuelan children and offers help with documentation. “We help as we can,” he said.

But shelters across the state are overcrowded. Socorro Lopes, the coordinator of a shelter for indigenous migrants in Pacaraima, said that it has capacity for 250 but sleeps 400. “It is not ideal, but we have a structure,” she said.

“The town has big structural problems in education, health and social assistance,” she said. “People have stopped believing that things will improve until the flow [of migrants] is reduced.”



Ten shelters in Roraima’s capital Boa Vista house around 600 Venezuelans each – and all are overcrowded, said Ricardo Baumgartner, local coordinator for Catholic non-profit group Fraternidade (Fraternity), which runs three shelters. He said the influx of migrants had increased crime and made it harder to access health services.

“A part of population does not accept this,” he said. “Another part wants to welcome them.”



“The Brazilian authorities have made significant efforts to respond to the intense flow of Venezuelans fleeing a humanitarian crisis and political persecution,” HRW said in a statement. “They can’t turn their backs now.”



Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, argued that the order to seal the border was largely symbolic, given that much of Brazil’s extensive land borders are not even policed.

“There is no way Brazil can close the border,” he said. “Many migrants frequently go into and out of Brazil without passing the regular check points.”



Countries across South America have struggled to cope with the region’s worst migration criss in decades. More than a million Venezuelans have headed west to Colombia, where the outgoing president, Juan Manuel Santos, signed a decree last week granting residency and work permits to 440,000 undocumented migrants.</s>BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian federal appeals court judge on Tuesday overturned a ruling barring Venezuelan immigrants fleeing economic and political turmoil from entering the country, the Solicitor General’s office, which had made the appeal, said.

On Sunday, a federal judge in the northern state of Roraima ordered the border closed until the state could create “humanitarian” conditions to receive a massive influx of Venezuelans, who have overwhelmed state social services and caused a growing humanitarian crisis.

Appeals court judge Kassio Marques acknowledged “grave violations of the public and judicial order,” but overturned the lower court’s ruling. He said the closure would not help to improve humanitarian conditions for Venezuelans fleeing their country, as the federal prosecutors and public defenders offices who brought the case had argued.

The Brasilia-based judge’s decision was cited in a statement by the Solicitor General’s office.

The federal police said on Tuesday that it never actually closed the frontier but had begun preparations for shutting it on Monday.

“Those measures were promptly suspended this morning, in the wake of the new judicial decision ... and the normal flow of Venezuelan immigrants was re-established,” the federal police said in a statement.

A state government official in Roraima said that although the federal police never closed the border, officers did momentarily stop Venezuelans entering.

“They only let pass those who had been granted asylum, residency or could prove they has passage out of the country,” the official told Reuters. “There was even a little protest.”

Nearly 33,000 Venezuelans had asked for asylum in Brazil as of April 30, while another 25,000 had entered the country by other means, including humanitarian visas, labor and migration visas, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

“In 2018, the number of asylum seekers from Venezuela is already larger than for the whole of 2017,” he said.

Venezuela is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, with people going short of food, medicines and other essentials, and periodic waves of protests against the country’s leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.

In appealing Sunday’s ruling, the Solicitor General’s office said closing the border in Roraima would likely do little to stem the flow of Venezuelans, as the border is so extensive.

The Brazilian Air Force began flying Venezuelan immigrants in Roraima to other cities of Brazil in May and has so far flown more than 800 Venezuelans out of Boa Vista, the state capital.</s>A Brazilian federal judge has ordered the country’s border with Venezuela to be closed to migrants fleeing that country’s economic meltdown, though the frontier has remained open while the government appeals the decision.

Judge Helder Barreto ordered the border closed until the northern state of Roraima can create the “humanitarian” conditions to handle the influx, Reuters reported. State officials told the news agency that more than 500 Venezuelans cross into Roraima on average every day.

The incursion has overwhelmed social services and led to homeless families sleeping in the streets amid rising crime and prostitution, among other concerns. The migration also has triggered an outbreak of measles; many Venezuelan refugees have not been immunized due to the breakdown of the health system there.

As part of his ruling, Barreto ordered the vaccination of all Venezuelans admitted to Brazil. He also suspended a local measure permitting the expulsion of Venezuelans who broke the law, as well as a decree requiring Venezuelan immigrants seeking medical and social services to have a valid passport.

However, he also ordered that the entry of Venezuelan refugees be halted until Roraima has reached an equal number of people entering the state and leaving for other parts of Brazil.

The Brazilian Air Force has flown approximately 820 Venezuelans out of the state’s capital, Reuters added.

A border official told the news agency that hundreds of Venezuelan refugees continued to cross the border Monday.

Click for more from Reuters.</s>Judge says entry of immigrants suspended until conditions for ‘humanitarian reception’ are created – activists called it ‘absurd’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A judge in Brazil has blocked Venezuelans from entering the border state of Roraima as local authorities harden their stance against the flood of migrants fleeing hunger and hardship in their home country.

Judge Helder Barreto said he had suspended the entry of Venezuelan immigrants until the conditions for a “humanitarian reception” are created but activists working with migrants attacked it as “absurd”.

Sister Telma Lage from the non-profit Migration and Human Rights Institute, which helps vulnerable migrants in Roraima’s capital Boa Vista, said the judge had overstepped his authority.

“[Venezuelans] are entering Brazil and seeking refuge because of the vulnerable situation they find themselves in,” she said. “What we fear is the lack of options for those near to the border.”

Quick guide Why is Venezuela in crisis? Show Hide Under the late Hugo Chávez, who ushered in Venezuela’s socialist revolution in 1999, a new constitution and numerous elections placed nearly all government institutions under the control of the ruling Socialist party. This concentration of power was aided by a feuding opposition which carried out ineffectual campaigns and electoral boycotts. After Chávez died of cancer in 2013, he was succeeded by Nicolás Maduro who is even less tolerant of dissent. Growing political authoritarianism has coincided with greater state dominance over the economy. But expropriations, price controls and mismanagement have led to a 40% contraction of the economy in the past five years. Oil accounts for 96% of Venezuela’s export income but many foreign companies have been driven out and production has dropped to a 30-year low. The resulting fiscal crisis has prompted the government to print more money, which has led to hyperinflation and a collapse of the currency. It also means that the government can’t import enough food and medicine to meet demand. Maduro has rejected economic reforms out of loyalty to socialism and because many government officials are allegedly getting rich off the economic distortions – through exchange rate scams and by selling scarce food on the black market.



Since 2015, more than 56,000 Venezuelans have sought refuge or residency in Brazil amid continuing political turmoil and economic collapse in their home country.

But the flood of migrants has severely stretched health and education services in the poor state of Roraima.

“There is no point in welcoming Venezuelan immigrants if they are going to be subjected to equal or more degrading conditions here,” said Judge Barreto.

Suely Campos, the Roraima state governor, welcomed the ruling and blamed the federal government for a “total” lack of support. “It’s us who are dealing with a social tragedy on our frontiers,” Campos said in a statement.

Hunger Highway: desperate Venezuelans take hard road to Brazil Read more

Campos first requested Brazil’s supreme court to close the border, in a lawsuit which also asked the government to refund $49m her administration said it had spent on refugees.

On 1 August, she raised the stakes with a state decree ordering Venezuelans to show passports before accessing health and security services and directing police to deport any migrants who committed crimes.

The state said health attendances had increased 6,500% last year alone and crimes had increased 132% since 2015, and increase which it attributed to migrants.

But Sister Lage said that most migrants do not have passports so the decree effectively excluded migrants from receiving heathcare.

Prosecutors and Brazil’s Public Defence Office went to court to try and overturn the decree, arguing that immigrants entering Brazil in Roraima were in a situation of “extreme vulnerability” and that effectively banning them from accessing health services would create the risk of epidemics – especially as Roraima is currently battling a measles outbreak.



On Sunday, Judge Barreto agreed to suspend the decree’s clauses on passports and deportation but also closed the border to Venezuelans – a request neither the Public Defence Office nor federal prosecutors had requested. They now plan to appeal.
Brazil closes its international border with Venezuela, following a similar move enacted but then rescinded by Colombia earlier in 2018, as a response to an increase in Venezuelans fleeing their country to neighbouring states.