One step away
More than 100 organizations pressure President Temer to sign New Immigration Law
Following the approval of the New Immigration Law in the Senate on April 18, the bill is now just one step away from replacing the Foreigner Act: the signature of the president. A letter signed by more than 100 civil society organizations and bodies such as the UNHCR – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been sent to President Michel Temer asking him to promptly sign the text of the law without weakening it.
The organizations stress in the letter that the new law not only modernizes the system for receiving and registering immigrants, but it also requires Brazil to meet its international obligations (incorporating the concept of statelessness for the first time into the country’s legislation), contains provisions on unaccompanied children and includes clauses to protect the rights of Brazilians living abroad.
Moreover, Conectas and the other signatories of the letter argue that the Immigration Law is more closely aligned with the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, “guided by the principle of equality and non-discrimination, an essential condition for safeguarding human rights and a basic standard for respecting the dignity of every human person.”
Finally, they point out that the bill approved in Congress is the result of a long process characterized by open, nonpartisan, intense and participatory debate in the Lower House and in the Senate, with the involvement of multiple stakeholders such as civil society, the Federal Police and the Ministries of Justice, Labor and Foreign Relations, among others. According to the organizations, “the new Immigration Law attunes the Brazilian system to the concepts of a receptive, fair and supportive society.”
> Click here to read the letter in full.
