Image copyright Reuters

Brazil has re-opened its northern border with Venezuela to those fleeing economic and political turmoil there, after briefly closing it.

The Supreme Court overturned an earlier order to shut the frontier until Brazil could put in place the right conditions to receive the huge influx of people.

Authorities in the state of Roraima in Brazil's Amazon region say some 500 Venezuelans cross the border every day.

The border was re-opened to Venezuelan migrants after a few hours on Monday.

"It is not justified to take the easy path to 'close the doors' because of difficulties in hosting refugees," Supreme Court justice Rosa Weber said in her ruling issued shortly before midnight.

The temporary order by a lower court judge stated that the border would remain open to Brazilians and other non-Venezuelans.

It was also to be open for Venezuelans returning north out of Brazil. Sea and air borders were unaffected by the ruling.

Many thousands of Venezuelans have fled into neighbouring countries, mainly Colombia and Brazil, in search of better economic conditions over the past three years.

An apparent assassination attempt on Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro at the weekend has raised tensions in the country even further.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Many Venezuelans who have crossed into Brazil struggle to find accommodation

Most who have crossed the border to Brazil in recent months are living in appalling conditions on the streets of the Boa Vista, the impoverished state capital of Roraima, in the heart of the Amazon region.

For months, authorities in Roraima have been calling for the border to be shut. They say that public services have collapsed and that migration has brought about a sharp rise in crime.

Brazil's central government had opposed any border closure, saying that ordinary Venezuelans were suffering the consequences of a humanitarian crisis and that Brazil must continue to help. </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> 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> On 19 February, the Latin American country’s regional military chief announced the closure of the Venezuelan maritime border with the Dutch Caribbean.

Venezuela will close the border with neighboring island nations, suspend air traffic and revise their diplomatic ties, its Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said Wednesday after the Caribbean island of Curacao agreed to act as a hub for relief aid shipments.

“Venezuela has decided not only to shut the border but also to revise relations with these countries. These measures will be in place until their governments start following and respecting international laws,” she said at a press conference broadcast by the state television.

Earlier in the day, the Reuters news agency reports, citing a regional military commander that Venezuela’s government had reopened its national maritime border with the Dutch Antilles islands following its closure on Tuesday.

This comes after Venezuela’s regional military chief said on Tuesday that he had ordered the closure of the Venezuelan maritime border with the Dutch Antilles islands. The move was made amid Dutch plans to open a logistical hub for humanitarian aid on the island of Curacao, however, the exact reasons behind Caracas’ decision to close the border remain unclear.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro refused to accept US aid that is currently waiting in Colombia, blasting it as a ploy to topple his government.

Venezuela is in the midst of a political crisis, which escalated in late January when Venezuelan opposition parliamentary speaker Juan Guaido declared himself interim president, disputing last year’s re-election of Maduro.

Guaido was recognized by the United States and a number of other countries. At the same time, Russia, China, Mexico, Turkey and Uruguay were among those that voiced their support for Maduro as the country’s legitimately elected president. </s> Brazil reopened its northern border with Venezuela on Tuesday after a federal judge annulled a ruling that barred immigrants from entering the country.

Border entry points were opened again at 10 am following a ruling by an appellate court revoking the measure adopted Sunday by federal judge Helder Girao Barreto. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — One of the main border crossings between Brazil and Venezuela has reopened after a legal fight that kept it shuttered it for nearly a day.

It’s part of a tug-of-war between a state government overwhelmed by hundreds of Venezuelans arriving every day and the federal government and higher courts, which insist the border must stay open.

The crossing in the Brazilian city of Pacaraima was opened Tuesday after a lower court decision was overturned.

The border was closed Monday after Judge Helder Girao Barreto ruled it should be closed until a program to relocate Venezuelan refugees can keep pace with daily arrivals. However, that decision was reversed by an appellate court.

Over the last year, tens of thousands of Venezuelans, fleeing economic hardships, have taken refuge in Brazil. </s> RIO DE JANEIRO — One of the main border crossings between Brazil and Venezuela has reopened after a legal fight that kept it shuttered it for nearly a day.

It’s part of a tug-of-war between a state government overwhelmed by hundreds of Venezuelans arriving every day and the federal government and higher courts, which insist the border must stay open.

The crossing in the Brazilian city of Pacaraima was opened Tuesday after a lower court decision was overturned.

The border was closed Monday after Judge Helder Girao Barreto ruled it should be closed until a program to relocate Venezuelan refugees can keep pace with daily arrivals. However, that decision was reversed by an appellate court.

Over the last year, tens of thousands of Venezuelans, fleeing economic hardships, have taken refuge in Brazil. </s> 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> The Brazilian President has ordered the army to be deployed to the borderline state of Roraima shortly after clashes broke out between the locals and Venezuelans fleeing their country's economic and political problems.

In a statement on Tuesday, Brazil's President Michel Temer said that the military deployment he authorized on Tuesday is aimed at ensuring the security of both Brazilians and Venezuelan refugees, who have been pouring into one of the Brazil's poorest and least populated states en masse.

The government of Roraima, Brazil's northernmost state, has long urged federal authorities to stem the migrant flow overwhelming the small town of Pacaraima with a population of some 12,000.

An estimated 1,000 Venezuelan refugees were forced to sleep on the streets when a local storeowner was attacked in mid-August, in an incident blamed on foreigners. It sparked violent skirmishes that saw angry locals setting refugees' belongings on fire and throwing rocks at them. Several shots were fired during the altercation, and over 1,200 migrants were forced to cross the border back to Venezuela.

The Brazilian government responded to the unrest by sending 60 troops to assist local police, with Roraima state Governor Suely Campos asking the government to beef up security against a spike in crime, and temporarily shut down the border.

Justifying his move to send the troops that would be stationed in the northern and eastern areas of the state as well as on federal highways from August 29 to September 12, Temer said that the government took the urgent action in light of an "ever more intense flow" of arrivals from crisis-hit Venezuela, battling food shortages, skyrocketing inflation and unemployment.

The Brazilian authorities estimate that about 600-700 Venezuelans cross into Brazil from Venezuela daily. While the steady influx has put a strain on the Roraima authorities and has reportedly driven up the crime rate, only about 20-30 percent of Venezuelans remain in the country while others move on to Peru and Chile. Colombia has also been impacted by the Venezuelan exodus, with authorities estimating that some 3,000 Venezuelans cross into the country every day either to apply for temporary residence or move further to Ecuador or Peru.

With no end in sight to the Venezuelan economic turmoil, Peru and Ecuador have tightened checks at the border, demanding that migrants have valid passports with them. Before that, those who wanted to enter the country legally had only to produce ID.

Speaking about the broader implications of Venezuela's refugee problem, Temer argued that since it has transcended several borders it's no longer an internal issue, but "a threat to the harmony of the whole continent." He added that Brazil is "going to seek the support of the international community to adopt diplomatic measures to solve these problems."
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.