ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to different countries the responsibility to carry out the control of their borders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and its different strains within their territories. This chapter will present research on the measures taken in 2020–2021 by the Brazilian Federal Government to control the country’s borders. We analyze the measures employed over time, including, for example, what nationalities were excluded and what exceptions were made. The results point to a discriminatory border control policy, unjustified by public health arguments. Foreigners arriving by land were discriminated against in relation to those arriving by air or sea. There was also discrimination within the group arriving by land, as between the ten different countries that border Brazil. The results show unjustified discriminatory treatment with respect to Venezuelans, as well as the existence of contradictory rules facilitating the entry of foreigners from some countries in relation to others in the same epidemiological situation. This chapter concludes with forward-facing recommendations for how to approach border control in order to reduce inequalities and protect the most vulnerable people.
