BRAZIL will begin imposing restrictions on the entry of some foreigners from Asia, claiming that the country is being used as a stepping stone for migration to the United States and Canada.

According to Wednesday’s announcement by the Justice Ministry press office, the new arrangements will begin next Monday and affect migrants from a number of Asian countries who require visas to remain in Brazil. 

The new rules will not apply to people from Asian countries who are exempt from visa requirements, nor to citizens of the US and many European countries who also do not require visas for Brazil.

A federal police investigation has reportedly shown that some Asian migrants often buy tickets for flights to other countries that involve a stopover at Sao Paulo’s international airport and then stay in the country until beginning a journey to the north.

More than 70 per cent of requests for refuge at the airport come from people with either Indian, Nepalese or Vietnamese nationality, one of the documents says. 

The African nations of Somalia, Cameroon, Ghana and Ethiopia are among the remaining 30 per cent of refuge-seekers.

Starting next week, travellers without visas will either have to continue their journey by plane or return to their country of origin, the ministry said.

A report by federal police investigator Marinho da Silva Rezende Junior said that, since the start of last year, there had been “great turmoil” due to the number of migrants arriving at the airport in Guarulhos, a city in the Sao Paulo area.

The report says: “Evidence suggests that those migrants, for the most part, are making use of the known and extremely dangerous route that goes from Sao Paulo to the western state of Acre so that they can access Peru and go towards Central America and then, finally, reach the US from its southern border.”

Brazil’s Justice Ministry said that the new guidelines would not apply to the almost 500 migrants currently camping out at the airport.