Brazil Migration entry restrictions for asian countries

@mikehunter, the issue here is that Brazil does not seem to require a visa when someone is only on transit.  For example, if someone from Asia needs to go to Chile and makes a transit stop in GRU, this person may have the right visa for the destination but does not complete the flight and exits at GRU.  If this is the case, it is not the fault of the airline if the passenger asks for asylum in Brazil on transit.

GRU is a funny airport and I have to switch terminals whenever I transfer from Latam flight within Brazil and Delta flight fulfilled by Latam....  It's easy from anyone to not make it from one terminal to another - which is what the article is referring to.....

I missed a flight before because of that long distance I had to walk from one terminal to another....

However, the number of people from asia affected are quite few - as compared to people from other countries who attempt crossing the Darien gap.

Not sure how this will be enforced....

Here's my two Centavos......

1-this article lacks citations, names, evidence of any kind.

2-this article is from western media.

3-in the 60+ times I've entered Brasil by air I have yet to see a situation where a person can go from airside to landslide without entering the PF queue and providing valid documents.

4-Mike is correct in that airlines are financially responsible for the removal of pax if entry is denied. I've had to show my PP visa and later plastic RNE many a time before I even went thru security.

5-I've watched over 40 episodes of Area Restrita which is a Brasilian documentary series on the work of the PF and RF in GRU and GIG. It's pretty open disclosure of procedures, more than I expected. Pax profiles are screened on all international flights, connections, travel patterns, etc, are seemingly investigated where applicable. I've even seen my profile first hand in GIG one time briefly for about 5 seconds. Enforcement often takes place in the jetway BEFORE you even get to immigration, etc, if it's a flight from a source country.

6-both airports have in transit walkways that redirect you without the need to pass immigration.

Things don't line up in this "news article" at all.

@Gasparzinho 777   Yeah, the article is true.  It comes from the Brasilian Ministry of Justice.    I can understand a 1 off violation every once in a while, but apparently this is a huge issue.   

Here is a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7RgDYpso9k

I don't understand how this many people are getting on planes without the proper identification, and if they don't have it, why they are not deported on the spot.  That is my understanding how this is suppose to work.  Instead you have 400+ people camping out at GRU?  That just seems insane.

@Pablo888 I checked, and a visa for transit is required:

With the new Brazilian Migration Law (Law No. 13,445, of 08/24/2017), specific visas for transit purposes do no longer exist. In case the applicant has to leave the international area and go through the Brazilian customs at any international airport in Brazil, it will be necessary to file for a regular visitor visa (VIVIS).

General rules

• Citizens of countries with no visa exemption agreements with Brazil, in possession of separate tickets, stopping over in Brazil on their way to a final destination (having to leave the transit zone), must hold a transit visa.

• Visas remain unnecessary for nationals of countries with visa exemption agreements, regardless of the type of ticket.

• If you do not qualify for visa exemption, please verify your ticket.

If you have one single ticket, under a single booking reference, stating both the origin and the final destination, regardless of multiple stopovers or multiple carriers, and as long as you remain in the transit zone, you do not require a transit visa. If you have separate tickets for inbound and outbound flights, a transit visa is required.

OK, so the Brasilian system is secure, but, somehow people are getting on flights illegally in departing countries and making refugee claims upon arrival, but people with visa's are making legit connections out of the country and not coming back. The AP article is slanted to make Brasil an unfriendly country to Asians, which cannot be farther from the truth.

People living in GRU is old news though, that's started with Afghans leaving before and after the US departure. Brasil needs to get tougher with foreign airlines.

When this started to happen here in Alberta with Mexicans back about 10-15 years ago, we simply removed the landing rights for their airlines. Problem solved too.

Brasil refusing to allow foreign nationals to make connections out of the country seems like it will accomplish the thing on the surface, however, it still leaves open the illegal boarding at departure problem.

08/22/24 @mikehunter.  The story hangs together for me, based both on past experience and news reports of the increase in traffic through the Darién Gap.  I haven't checked the status lately, but unless it's changed recently, Bolivia is an example of a country that has been pretty lose with visas in South Asia, and it was not unusual for people with Bolivian visas to board flights legally in their home countries on the assumption that they'd remain in the international area to make their connection for La Paz, and instead toss the onward portion of their tickets and present themselves to the Polícia Federal at GRU to request asylum. 

We had a case here on the site about two years ago of a Pakistani man who was granted asylum by Brazil, then made a run for the US/Mexico border without getting permission from the PF to leave the country.  He was caught by the US authorities and deported back to Pakistan, and could not return to Brazil because he had violated the terms of his asylum:  no way around that.  If that's become common enough for the PF to take notice, this sounds like the logical result.