The National Committee for Refugees (Conare) announced today (7) the creation of the Observatory on Violence against Migrants and Refugees, which will aim to monitor complaints and procedures related to the issue and support the development of public policies to address it. The decision was taken during the plenary meeting held on 3 February.
The observatory, which has the participation of representatives of the Ministries of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) and of Foreign Affairs (MRE), will have as its “first assignment” the follow-up “of cases of violence against members of the Congolese community in Brazil, in particular the case of Congolese citizen Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, victim of a heinous crime recently committed in Rio de Janeiro”.
Images released by the Civil Police on the 1st showed the aggressions against the Congolese, which took place on January 24, at the Tropicália kiosk, at Posto 8 in Barra da Tijuca.
Three men were indicted, according to the head of the Capital Homicide Police Station, Henrique Damasceno, for doubly qualified homicides. In the images it is possible to see the three men who participated in the session of violence against Moïse, brutally beaten with clubs after a disturbance began at the kiosk.
According to relatives of the Congolese, he would have gone to the place to collect a debt, since the aggressors reported that he had started a fight inside the establishment, where he worked as an attendant.
Moïse was buried on the 30th, at the Irajá Cemetery, under protest from friends and relatives and with African music and dance. He came to Brazil in 2011 to flee armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
inquiry
Faced with the situation, the Public Ministry of Labor in Rio de Janeiro (MPT-RJ) launched a Civil Inquiry to investigate the death of the Congolese. The MPT investigation will analyze the labor relationship between the parties.
The complaint points to possible work without the recognition of labor rights, which may even configure work in conditions analogous to slavery, in the form of forced labor, xenophobia and racism. The investigation runs in parallel with the criminal investigations.
This Saturday (5), a protest was organized in front of the Tropicália kiosk, bringing together defenders of the black cause and human rights.
