{"id":28469,"date":"2021-02-26T20:46:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T20:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/noticias\/bolsonaro-government-ignores-guidance-from-regulator-on-border-closures-2\/"},"modified":"2021-04-01T12:12:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T12:12:32","slug":"bolsonaro-government-ignores-guidance-from-regulator-on-border-closures-2","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/bolsonaro-government-ignores-guidance-from-regulator-on-border-closures-2\/","title":"Bolsonaro government ignores guidance from regulator on border closures","content":"

On Thursday, February 25, Conectas and Miss\u00e3o Paz filed a representation petition with the Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office requesting an investigation into the discriminatory closure of land borders for refugees coming from Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Documents produced by Anvisa (National Health Regulatory Agency) reveal that there was no guidance from the regulator to put segregated bans on the entry of people to Brazil from border countries during the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The documents were sent to Conectas in response to a technical opinion<\/strong><\/span><\/a> produced by Cepedisa\u00a0(Center for Research on Health Law of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo) and addressed to the agency in December last year. The study demonstrated that the restrictions imposed by the federal government through decrees published over the course of 2020 are not based on legal or health grounds<\/strong>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

In response to the technical opinion, the agency declared that \u201cthere are no recommendations to segregate any border country\u201d. However, the current decree issued by the federal government (no. 652, of January 25, 2021)<\/strong><\/a><\/span> places restrictions on migrants coming from Venezuela. The decree also imposes restrictions on people from the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and South Africa, but in these cases due to the new strains of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

According to a technical statement from the Coordination Office of Epidemiological Surveillance in Ports, Airports, Borders and Customs Facilities – COVIG, in response to the Official Letter from Conectas, \u201cthe restrictions referring to travelers from or who have spent time in the past fourteen days in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of South Africa, were recommended to CCSMI [Crisis Committee for the Supervision and Monitoring of the Impacts of Covid-19] by Anvisa, based on the precautionary principle, due to warnings issued by the WHO regarding the identification of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 in those countries. The restrictions on foreigners from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela are not contained in any of the documents presented by Anvisa to support the decision-making process of the aforementioned Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n