Brazil taking Syrian refugees; large Syrian community there

This is just for your information, it was news to me and assume it might be to you as well.

Iconic image: Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue

From UNHCR posted at Reuters:

…. instead of seeking shelter in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan or Egypt, which together have taken in 1.89 million Syrians, Nidal [featured refugee in this article—ed] decided to head across the Atlantic to Brazil, which has a big Syrian community. He was not the only one; Brazil has granted asylum to just over 200 Syrian refugees in the past two-and-a-half years and a further 50 claims are waiting to be processed. In April, the number of asylum-seekers recognized was up 50 per cent on the month before.

The Brazilian government has approved 100 per cent of the asylum claims presented so far by Syrian nationals, but many more people may have flown to the country and not bothered to seek asylum.

“We assume that the number of Syrians living in Brazil because of the conflict is much bigger than the figure revealed by the official statistics,” said Andrés Ramirez, UNHCR’s representative in Brazil. He said that this was because many of the new arrivals were staying with family or friends among the estimated 3 million-strong Syrian community, which is playing a key support role.

Syrian asylum-seekers had started arriving in Brazil from the very beginning of the conflict and officials said this was this was due to the strong historical links between the two countries and the big Syrian community.

No overt mention of what the predominant religion of the Syrian “community” is (after all this is a UN press release).  Maybe this is where the Christians are going, but I really don’t know.  Do you?

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