GENEVA – UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, is working with federal, state and municipal authorities, as well as its partner organizations in Brazil, to respond to the serious consequences of extreme weather events, including torrential rains, strong winds and a cold snap, which hit parts of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil.
Severe flooding has claimed at least 107 lives and affected more than 1.7 million people, according to official figures. One hundred and thirty-four other people are still missing.
Among those affected are some 41,000 refugees and others in need of international protection, including many Venezuelans and Haitians who live in the disaster areas and are only accessible by boat.
In coordination with local authorities, UNHCR is distributing relief items such as blankets and mattresses, and assessing the needs of the affected population. UNHCR also provides technical support to facilitate communication with affected communities so that refugees and migrants have access, in their own language, to official protection information in the places where they live.
In the coming days, UNHCR will support the issuance of identity documents, where they have been lost or damaged, to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers continue to have access to social benefits and public services . The agency will also strengthen the teams of civil society partners who are on site to provide psychological support and care for the most vulnerable cases, including among members of host communities.
Additional relief items, such as emergency shelters, kitchen sets, blankets, solar lamps and hygiene kits are currently being shipped to Brazil from UNHCR’s regional stocks and existing stock. agency in the north of the country.
According to data provided by the government, the state of Rio Grande do Sul hosts more than 21,000 Venezuelans who have been relocated there from the state of Roraima, on the country’s northern border with Venezuela, since April 2018.
Extreme weather events have continued in Brazil and become more destructive in recent years, including droughts in the Amazon region and heavy rains in the states of Bahia and Acre, all of which UNHCR has responded to responded by his interventions.
UNHCR estimates that $3.21 million is needed to meet the most urgent needs of the populations, including direct financial assistance and the distribution of basic necessities to affected people. More than 85% of the territory of Rio Grande do Sul was affected by flooding. Around 68,000 people are forced to live in emergency shelters, while more than 327,000 have left their homes.
Meteorologists are forecasting further heavy rain and strong winds across the state through this weekend.
These extreme weather events disproportionately affect refugees and others in need of international protection. The funds available to address the consequences of climate change are not sufficient to meet the needs of forcibly displaced people and the communities that host them. Without assistance to prepare for, cope with and overcome such weather events, these people are at increased risk of being displaced again.
In April 2024, UNHCR launched its first-ever Climate Resilience Fund to help build the resilience of refugees, displaced communities and their hosts to the increase in extreme weather events linked to climate change.
