Thousands of Argentine football fans stay on in Brazil after World Cup defeat to avoid economic worries back home
- Thousands of Argentine football fans refuse to return home after World Cup
- Many of the stragglers are camping illegally selling 'friendship bracelets'
- Officials fear that the influx with strain the over-stretched welfare system
- Many of the migrants refuse to return home because of the poor economy
Hard-core Argentinian football fans have been camping out on Brazilian beaches despite the World Cup finishing almost a month ago.
It is estimated that 160,000 Argentines travelled to Brazil for the World Cup with the majority of them leaving following their extra time defeat by Germany.
However, tens of thousands have vowed to remain in Brazil and start a new life despite running low on cash.
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Thousands of Argentina fans have refused to return home following their World Cup defeat to Germany
Lucas Bazan Pontoni arrived in Rio de Janeiro almost a month ago and is surviving on heavily subsidised meals from a soup kitchen.
The 23-year-old actor said: 'Brazil is amazing, and I want to stay It could be weeks or months or longer. I'm going to see where life and the road take me.'
Local media reports say tens of thousands of Argentine fans remain in the country. They appear to be overwhelmingly young and male. Most are in their 20s, and less than a third of them are women.
Brazil's Federal Police did not respond to email and telephone requests seeking confirmation of how many Argentines are still here.
Brazilian authorities are now worried that many of these fans will try and claim welfare benefits or seek a living by scrounging.
Argentina is suffering an economic meltdown with high unemployment rates.
Antonio Pedro Figueira de Mello, who heads Rio's tourism promotion agency, has acknowledged that controls along Brazil's 780-mile land border with its southern neighbor may have been too lax during the tournament.
'We were taken by surprise. In any place in the world, people have to state where they're going, how much time they're staying, what resources they have and whether they have health insurance. That was not done.'
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Many of the migrants have refused to return home because of the economic turmoil in their home country
Argentines don't need a visa, or even a passport, to visit Brazil. A government ID card will do.
Mello spoke at the Sambadrome, which was turned into a makeshift campsite to help accommodate the waves of Argentines who arrived by car, bus and motorhome during the World Cup.
The site was closed last week, and the last campers were evicted. Media reports said Argentine consular officials were there to help organise return transportation for people whose money ran out or whose documents were lost or stolen, but many reportedly weren't interested in such help.
The stragglers dress mostly in raggedy shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, bathing infrequently at public water fountains or outdoor showers at the beach. There is no need for warm clothes in Rio, where the temperatures currently hover around 28 degrees Celsius.
Brazil and Argentine harbor a deep rivalry over soccer, and scattered fights between young men from both nations were seen in Rio and other cities during the Cup. But the lingering presence of the Argentines hasn't seemed to ruffle any feathers.
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Officials fear the the influx will place an additional burden on Brazil's over-stretched welfare system
In fact, Fatima Souza de Oliveira, a 60-year-old high school Portuguese teacher, said she saw the stragglers as an homage to the Brazilian way of life.
'I think it's our relaxed attitude, our beaches and the warmth of the climate and the people that enchanted them,' she said. 'Everyone who came for the Cup loved it and they all probably wanted to stay.'
The Argentines are not the only World Cup fans intent on remaining in Brazil.
Last week, police in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul said several hundred fans from the West African nation of Ghana applied for asylum after coming in on tourist visas to follow their national team. Brazil is studying the applications.
It could prove much more difficult to control the Argentines, without any visa requirements.
Following their eviction from the Sambadrome, Pontoni and 10 or so of his compatriots moved to a nearby park, where they lounged on the grass with their oversized backpacks.
They knotted friendship bracelets and prepared other handicrafts to hawk on the beach.
'I don't think I'm going back,' said 25-year-old Martin Sichero, a friend of Pontoni. 'I came for the World Cup, but now I think I'm here for good.'
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