This article sets out to analyze the migration of 4,000 Haitians between the beginning of 2010 and March of 2012 in Tabatinga (Amazonas), as a "critical event" in the history of recent migrations to Brazil. Based on onsite work by the Doctors Without Borders international organization, this text highlights the limits of the legal and operational response at the municipal, state and federal levels. This scale-based analytical approach allows for a comprehension of the convergence of elements and circumstances, which produced the humanitarian situation in Tabatinga. At the very time Brazil enters global migration routes, this article intends to contribute to the debate on Brazilian migratory policy reform.
migration; Haiti; Tabatinga; Amazonia