Brazilians in Suriname form a large community consisting mostly of miners. The number of Brazilians in the country is estimated at 40,000, nearly 10 percent of the population.
Settlement
Suriname's low population density and abundant natural resources have attracted numerous migrants from neighboring
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. Over the past decade or so, as many as 40,000 Brazilians, mostly illegal immigrants, have moved to Suriname, a country with fewer than half a million citizens. Many Brazilians in Suriname work as small-scale gold miners, particularly in the town of
Albina, which has become a base for nomadic gold prospectors.
Albina riots
Gold mining in Albina is typically environmentally destructive and it has resulted in clashes between the miners and indigenous peoples.
In late December 2009,
a series of riots occurred when local
maroon inhabitants attacked
Brazilian,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Colombian and
Peruvian
Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest in th ...
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
diggers after a man was allegedly stabbed to death by a Brazilian.
The Brazilian government sent a diplomatic mission on December 27, 2009, to attend the Brazilian victims.
Five Brazilians returned to Brazil on December 27 on an airplane of the
Brazilian Air Force.
On December 28, an airplane with capacity for 40 people was sent to the city with the purpose of rescuing more Brazilians.
See also
*
Brazil–Suriname relations
References
{{Ethnic groups in Suriname
Suriname
Brazilian
Brazil–Suriname relations