Leader of Temer's Coalition in the Senate Calls to Deny Entry to Venezuelans Seeking Asylum

08/25/2017 - 11h21

The leader of president Michel Temer's coalition in the Senate, Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), stated on Thursday (the 24th) that Brazil should stop granting asylum to Venezuelans because, in his opinion, the conditions they're living in aren't extreme enough to justify the protection and "Brazil doesn't have the money to take these people in".

"I have defended, and will continue to defend, that we stop granting asylum to refugees", the senator said at a public hearing in Boa Vista, the state capital of Roraima, where thousands of Venezuelans are currently living.

"We granted asylum to the people of Haiti, where there was an earthquake, where calamities and plagues took over; or to the people of Líbia, where people are killing one another and bombs are being dropped on children; those situations call for asylum; [in Venezuela] what we're seeing is a dictatorship, a political dispute, so I believe we need to deny these requests."

According to Brazilian law, asylum will be granted to foreigners who are being persecuted due to race, religion, nationality, political views, or anyone who is forced to leave their country because of serious and systematic human rights violations.

"It's easy for Maduro to send five million people to Brazil because we will pay the bill", the senator said. "He send us his adversaries, and hold onto his allies; but does Brazil have the money for that?".

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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	Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
	Senator Romero Juca