Heavy rain and the overflowing Acre River flooded wide areas of the city of Rio Branco the capital of the state of Acre in Brazil The city recorded 124.4 mm of rain in 24 hours to 23 March 2023 according to figures from Brazil’s Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (INMET) The Acre River at Rio Branco jumped from around 8 metres to 15.80 metres in 24 hours Streets and homes were damaged across 10 neighbourhoods including Placas Authorities helped to evacuate some residents who took refuge in school buildings in the Conquista neighbourhood Flooding has continued in the city since then with the Acre River rising to 16.96 metres As many as 2,213 people have evacuated their homes The river has also flooded areas in the municipalities of Assis Brasil In Xapuri levels of the Acre River stood at 15.16 metres (flood level is 15 metres) and in Brasileia the river reached 13.62 metres (flood level is 11.40 metres) flooding from the Acre River has affected almost 15,000 people local authorities reported 433 displaced in Assis Brasil; 8,886 displaced in Brasileia; and 316 displaced in Xapuri Flooding along the Acre river is also affecting areas of the Pando Department in Bolivia which sits on the banks of the Acre opposite the city of Brasileia Bolivia’s Ministry of Health reported at least 300 families have been affected or evacuated Five shelters have been opened to accommodate those displaced Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList BRASILEIA, Brazil — An issue that has been ongoing since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti has finally come to an end in Brazil Since the earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, Brazil decided to welcome Haitians to their country with the creation of a ‘humanitarian visa.’ This visa would allow Haitians to seek refuge in Brazil without being deported while applying for refugee status so they could begin to start new lives for themselves Thousands of Haitians have since received these humanitarian visas many of whom have bypassed the Brazilian embassy in Haiti and instead traveled through Ecuador The reason Haitians have avoided the embassy is due to slow processing fees and excessive requirements some of which include unexplained middlemen fees and resumes to give preference to those who are “qualified.” Yet The situation got worse once the Haitians arrived A refugee camp was set up in the small town of Brasiléia in the state of Acre where hundreds of Haitians have since sought shelter Close to 1,000 immigrants live in this camp at any given time inside a warehouse that is built for less than 200 people The conditions have been described as extremely unhygienic Sewage leaks are common and fetid water spreads throughout the warehouse daily The migrants sleep crowded and often in sweltering heat The local hospital reported that 90 percent of Haitians in the camp have diarrhea and abdominal pain the crisis has heightened in the past few months blocking off the only road that connects the state where Brasiléia is located to the rest of Brazil Food and fuel supplies have dwindled substantially as well as other general social services yet migrants continue to flood into the refugee camp The government has since declared a state of emergency There were 2,600 refugees living in the camp at the time the Brazilian Air Force airlifted 2,000 of these refugees out of the area transferring them to a shelter in the state capital of Rio Branco The rest were left to fend for themselves when the state government announced that the refugee camp in Brasiléia would be closing for good Acre’s state secretary of social development refugees will be required to travel on their own to Rio Branco I have no doubt they will figure out how to navigate another 185 miles to the temporary shelter We can’t be responsible for them any longer.” Many think that this is Brazil’s attempt to shirk itself of its responsibilities to the Haitian refugees and leave them to fend for themselves More than 20,000 Haitian migrants have crossed the border and more continue to cross each day prompting many to believe that the problems are not going to end here Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Support NYU Law Gabrielle Apollon '15 appeared in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on October 31 to give testimony about the human rights violations of Haitian migrants to Brazil Apollon, the recipient of a Ford fellowship, spent 10 weeks working at Conectas Human Rights in Sao Paolo last summer. Her testimony at IACHR (watch the video) is based on 25 hours of interviews that she conducted with Haitian migrants in Brasileia found that migrants were eager to speak with her since she spoke Creole and French and thus could communicate with them “I had been worried that some might not want to speak to me about the situation due to the serious nature of [their exploitation] but I was inundated with people who wanted to share their stories,” said Apollon in her testimony Apollon described the difficult journeys that Haitian migrants undertook to reach Brazil focusing on the exploitation that met them from start to end While Brazil offers humanitarian visas for Haitians migrants typically paid racketeers $3,000 to $5,000 to travel to Brazil because they were unaware of or misinformed about visa requirements Along the route the migrants were frequently arrested and extorted by state authorities in the countries they traveled through And once they arrived in Brasileia they lived in overcrowded and unsanitary shelter conditions unable to return home unless family or friends in Haiti sent them money ‘We’ve already spoken out about what’s happening in our journeys here but every day we hear that our brothers and sisters who come after us are going through the same things that something might change,’” said Apollon This experience has deepened Apollon’s interest in migration and immigrant rights “I always knew I wanted to do work related to Haiti,” said Apollon “and now I have expanded my horizons as far as what that might entail.” as hundreds of Haitian migrants continue to pour into the region in the wake of the 2010 earthquake Nearly two years after their homeland was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake several thousand Haitians are already thought to have made the pilgrimage through Bolivia Peru or Colombia into Brazil in search of work New groups are reportedly arriving each weekend But while some are able to secure legal documents and find employment many end up stranded in tiny border towns such as Brasiléia now home to at least 724 Haitians out of a total population of around 20,000 "We are calling this a crisis," Leonel Joseph one of the first Haitian migrants to arrive in the Amazon state of Acre said after visiting the Haitian community in Brasiléia near Brazil's border with Bolivia and Peru sleeping on the streets and many more people are arriving," added Joseph a teacher who has become a community leader for the Haitian arrivals "Acre state is heading for a humanitarian crisis [The migrants] need to be given human conditions to live in." "The situation is critical," said Altino Machado a respected local blogger covering the Haitians' plight in this isolated corner of the Amazon "The number [of new arrivals] has risen hugely." a senator from President Dilma Rousseff's Workers' party (PT) said: "We are facing an extremely serious problem The number of Haitians leaving Haiti for Brazil rises every day because they have no chances in their country." "Brazil has welcomed them … but we must discuss a strategy to deal with this problem." Officially Brazil's government does not recognise the Haitian migrants as refugees But in a recent interview with the Guardian president of Brazil's national immigration council "While they are not refugees they are people who need some humanitarian support," he said "The government has been giving residence to those who can prove the link to the earthquake." But politicians in the Amazon claim not enough is being done to plead with federal authorities for assistance "The state of Acre has had to pay out 1m reals (£347,000) to help these people who are arriving without any food transport or the slightest means of survival inside Brazilian territory and this is not simply a state matter – it is a humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed," he said said: "The state government no longer has the means the experience or the money to keep giving humanitarian aid to Haitians who are coming into Brazil over our border." When the Guardian visited Brazil's border with Bolivia and Peru in May there were several hundred Haitians living here in cramped hotels and a local gym That number has now risen significantly while other Amazon cities such as Manaus Tabatinga and Porto Velho have also seen a growing influx It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem