Safe Haven in the South: Brazil’s Refugee Policy and Response to Venezuelan Migration
Today, over 100 million people are forcibly displaced. In the last six years, the number of asylum seekers has doubled, totaling 8.4 million by the end of 2025. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 67 percent of asylum seekers come from countries in the Global South, except for Ukraine, and that Venezuelans make up the biggest number of asylum seekers, totaling 6.5 million.
Yet one of the countries that’s rarely mentioned in the international refugee discourse is Brazil. Brazil’s approach demonstrates how Global South states can shape refugee governments beyond traditional Western leadership. While widely recognized for its pop culture, such as funk, samba, bossa nova, soccer, and the Amazonas, Brazil is rarely recognized for one of its legal leadership: emerging as the first country in Latin America to create and implement a refugee act. Brazil’s response to forced displacement represents a significant case of Global South legal leadership. At a time when many wealthier nations have adopted increasingly restrictive asylum policies, Brazil has maintained a comparatively expansive legal definition of refugee status and a structural federal response to mass migration.
The 1951 Refugee Convention was the first legally binding international treaty to define what constitutes a refugee and help establish universal rights. By its definition, a refugee is anybody who has a true fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, and/or participation in a specific social group. While an important development to global conversations surrounding refugees, it only focused on the individualized persecution and struggled to be adaptable to other forms of displacements, such as gendered violence, human trafficking as profit, natural disasters, and government collapse.
Following Brazil’s 20-year long military dictatorship, a new constitution was born. The 1988 “Citizen Constitution" was established on the basis of human rights, civil liberties, healthcare programs, reducing poverty, and so forth, officially ushering Brazil’s return to democracy. Brazil’s commitment to human rights led the country to want to establish an all encompassing legal framework addressing refugees. Law 9474 of 1997, or commonly referred to as the Brazilian Refugee Law of 1997, establishes the definition of a refugee, the rights a refugee is entitled to, procedures for the asylum process, the right to work while awaiting case outcome, and the creation of the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE).
Under Article 1 of the 1997 law, a refugee is defined as anyone who, under a well-founded fear, is seeking protection from persecution on the basis of religion, race, social group, nationality, etc. and cannot be protected by the country they are leaving. The law expanded the definitions of a refugee as someone who is forced to escape their country due to serious human rights violations, and expanded to group-based recognition. The broader interpretation enables Brazil to recognize Venezuelans under generalized human rights violations rather than requiring individualized prosecution claims. The UNHCR has praised Brazil’s framework, recognizing it as comprehensive and inclusive, exercising the Cartagena spirit, an initiative celebrating the 1984 Cartagena Declaration, aimed at strengthening protection for refugees and displaced people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil was not alone in adopting broader definitions of refugees, but it became one of the most institutionally robust implementers in South America. To the world, Brazil demonstrates that Global South countries can lead on refugee protection.
Brazil receives a number of refugees from all around the world, such as Syrians, Afghans, Haitians, but Venezuelans represent a larger number. In December of 2024, nearly 6,000 Venezuelans entered the country through the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. Many Venezuelans migrate South seeking to escape their country’s high inflation, shortages of food, and political repression. The crisis was exacerbated by Venezuela's heavy dependence on oil revenues, making its economy vulnerable to global price shocks. The country’s grave state took effect after a sharp drop in oil prices alongside oil production.
In 2016, two years before the launch of the program, more than 70,000 Venezuelans had fled to Roraima, the Brazilian state that borders the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. Two years later, in 2018, Brazil launched a new humanitarian program named Operação Acolhida (Operation Welcome), aimed at helping Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the settlement and relocation process to Brazilian cities. The program has three guiding objectives: border control, internal relocation, and federally managed shelters for refugees to occupy. It has also been praised internationally for coordination, though critics note persistent integration challenges in host cities. Since the operation’s launch, Brazil’s internal relocation program has helped to benefit over 100,000 Venezuelan refugees in relocating from Roraima to other cities in the country.
Even with the warmest of welcomes, many Venezuelans face barriers with employment, language barriers, and access to healthcare. In a 2023 survey, 52 percent of Venezuelan teenagers and youth felt that they needed emotional support, with 23 percent of surveyed Venezuelan teens feeling isolated and alone all the time. The problems that arise when encountering education and language barriers become even more prevalent in the case of Indigenous refugees, with the UNHCR reporting that: “...indigenous refugees [are] 5 times more likely to have no formal education when compared to the general Venezuelan population in Brazil.” Several members of Warao communities settled in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, report struggling to learn Portuguese, keeping permanent jobs, and having a community. These challenges can have long-term mental health effects on these communities. Initiatives such as guaranteeing interpreters in healthcare settings and expanding community centers are essential to protecting the mental and emotional health of Venezuelan refugees.
Despite these initial challenges, many Venezuelans report feeling more supported in Brazil than in other neighboring countries. Additionally, the Brazilian government’s efforts to integrate refugees into the workforce have been effective. In 2024, the UNHCR reported that “...over 169,000 Venezuelans entered the Brazilian labor market… an 18% increase from 2023.” However, many remain concentrated in low-wage or informal sectors, therefore limiting long-term economic stability. This dynamic shows that Brazil has been relatively successful in addressing and facilitating immediate inclusion into the Brazilian workforce, but less effective in maintaining sustainable, long-term employment. As a result, Venezuelan refugees may experience some form of conditional acceptance in Brazil, ultimately impacting their ability to adjust to their new life.
The situation at the border turned unclear in January 2026, when Brazil was forced to temporarily close its border with Venezuela, following U.S. military air strikes, resulting in the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. This development highlights the fragility of humanitarian policy during geopolitical crises and just how quickly humanitarian frameworks can become destabilized. Moving forward, Brazil’s ability to maintain its refugee commitments will depend on balancing security concerns with its established legal protections.