“Acolher, proteger, promover e integrar”

desafios do Serviço Pastoral dos Migrantes de Manaus em tempos de pandemia

Abstract

The article reflects on the challenges posed to the Pastoral Care for Migrants in welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating Venezuelan migrants in the city of Manaus, capital of Amazonas state, Brazil, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the demands presented by Venezuelan migrants to the Pastoral Care, the intention is to discuss the deepening of their vulnerabilities with the arrival of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), considering that Brazilian governmental policies do not consider their specificities. At first, we present a brief overview of the Venezuelan migratory process at the international level and describe the recent flow to Brazil by land, especially the increasing displacement to Manaus. Then, we describe the role of the Pastoral Care for Migrants in the state of Amazonas and its fronts of action with different migrant populations. In a third moment, through the systematization of the difficulties pointed out by Venezuelans in the context of the pandemic, we reflect on the challenges posed to the concretization of the Pastoral Care’s objectives: reception, protection, promotion and integration of these migrants. Finally, we take stock of the presence of nongovernmental organizations working in the gaps left by the fragility or even the absence of governmental migration policies.