Situation
The Venezuelan refugee crisis is still a crisis. According to the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR’s Regional Refugees and Migrants Response Plan, about 6.83 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants are projected to be in Latin America by the end of 2023.
Venezuela and the Latin American region are enduring this extended crisis and have not recovered from preexisting social problems and inequalities which have been worsened by COVID-19. Rampant violence, inflation, gang warfare, soaring crime rates and shortages of food, medicine, and social amenities have compelled over 2000 Venezuelan citizens to flee their homeland every day.
The unavailability of documentation for Venezuelans exacerbates the chances of these refugees of getting the support they need. They are forced to consistently confront exploitation, trafficking, violence, discrimination, and xenophobia in their host countries.
Background
Beginning in 2000, the Venezuelan refugee crisis is currently the second largest crisis in the world, with over 7.71 million persons displaced by it in 2023. It is a result of the simultaneity of economic, political, and humanitarian crises. The situation in Venezuela is an unconventional migration crisis. The Wilson Centre reported in 2019, “One of the reasons that the crisis has not received enough international attention or funding is that it defies the conventional understanding of what drives people to leave their country en masse. The United Nations defines the stream leaving Venezuela as a “mixed flow” of migrants and asylum-seekers, and has for the first time in its institutional history created a joint platform of the UNHCR and IOM to assist them”. The 1951 Refugee Convention definition does not apply to the majority of Venezuelan refugees as they are fleeing a “profound economic and political crisis, characterised by the systematic violation of human rights”.
In Venezuela, still, about 25% of the population requires humanitarian assistance. Cynthia Arnson, director of the Wilson Center’s Latin American program, stated, “Life is very difficult. The poverty rate is over 95 per cent. About 75 per cent of people live in extreme poverty. There are shortages of food, of drinking water, of medicines. Inflation last year was down to 700 per cent. It’s less than it was at 3,000 per cent the year before. But inflation is still very, very high.”
While the Latin American countries have openly accepted refugees, persons forcefully displaced from Venezuela reached over 6.83 million this year such that the region is unable to provide full access to food, shelter, healthcare, education, and formal employment according to the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V).
Impact
The crisis has been aggravated due to circumstances of lack of access to food, housing, and stable employment. Persons who have fled also continue to face these depravations in their respective host countries according to reports by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The UNHCR has further argued that the lack of integration opportunities in host countries is a leading factor in furthering secondary displacement. Since 2020, more than 300,000 nationals have had to return to Venezuela where they confront the cyclical lack of access to social services as per the National Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Refugees under the UNHCR mandate (2023) have expressed their experiences; “We walked for 11 days and had to sleep outside. We left because they threatened to kill us. My brother was killed… They almost killed me”. “We left everything in Venezuela. We don’t have a place to live or sleep and have nothing to eat” said a 34-year-old Venezuelan who fled to Brazil.
Current Action
International solidarity with refugees from Venezuela includes calls for systematic documentation and socioeconomic rights. The Solidarity Conference for Venezuelan refugees and migrants and their host communities was held in March 2023 where a pledge of $1.6 billion was made for support. The Member States of the Quito Process also signed a joint declaration emphasising the imperative of sustained international cooperation for Venezuelan refugees.
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has argued that the Venezuelan crisis is one of the most underfunded displacement movements in the world. The US government has provided $2.7 billion since 2017 but this is still grossly inadequate to support the Venezuelan refugees.
Only about 12% (decreased from 27%) of the $1.72 billion requested by the R4V for the 2023-2024 Refugee Response Plan has been collected. It is evident that there is a lack of global attention to this profound and pressing issue. This stands in contrast to some of the other displacement crises which have arisen in recent years. As the CSIS pointed out, “It is critical not to overlook this migrant crisis nor normalize it, as it is evidence of the persistence of the democratic and economic breakdown in this country, which continues to be a threat to the stability of the region and the world”.
This is a message that we should all take on, whenever we deal with and discuss humanitarian issues.
Vrinda Sahai
References
https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/venezuelan-refugee-crisis/
https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/understanding-venezuelan-refugee-crisis?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA67CrBhC1ARIsACKAa8QxAU1HMiAmrfLi7DX7S9JcH-4psG2u0GhFSx0rKUNOHxiJRyX9_V8aAvlMEALw_wcB
https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/unhcr-venezuela-situation-fact-sheet-november-2023
https://www.csis.org/analysis/persistence-venezuelan-migrant-and-refugee-crisis
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/emergencies/venezuela-situation
https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/venezuela/
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/understanding-the-venezuelan-refugee-crisis
The Venezuelan refugee crisis is still a crisis. According to the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR’s Regional Refugees and Migrants Response Plan, about 6.83 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants are projected to be in Latin America by the end of 2023.
Venezuela and the Latin American region are enduring this extended crisis and have not recovered from preexisting social problems and inequalities which have been worsened by COVID-19. Rampant violence, inflation, gang warfare, soaring crime rates and shortages of food, medicine, and social amenities have compelled over 2000 Venezuelan citizens to flee their homeland every day.
The unavailability of documentation for Venezuelans exacerbates the chances of these refugees of getting the support they need. They are forced to consistently confront exploitation, trafficking, violence, discrimination, and xenophobia in their host countries.
Background
Beginning in 2000, the Venezuelan refugee crisis is currently the second largest crisis in the world, with over 7.71 million persons displaced by it in 2023. It is a result of the simultaneity of economic, political, and humanitarian crises. The situation in Venezuela is an unconventional migration crisis. The Wilson Centre reported in 2019, “One of the reasons that the crisis has not received enough international attention or funding is that it defies the conventional understanding of what drives people to leave their country en masse. The United Nations defines the stream leaving Venezuela as a “mixed flow” of migrants and asylum-seekers, and has for the first time in its institutional history created a joint platform of the UNHCR and IOM to assist them”. The 1951 Refugee Convention definition does not apply to the majority of Venezuelan refugees as they are fleeing a “profound economic and political crisis, characterised by the systematic violation of human rights”.
In Venezuela, still, about 25% of the population requires humanitarian assistance. Cynthia Arnson, director of the Wilson Center’s Latin American program, stated, “Life is very difficult. The poverty rate is over 95 per cent. About 75 per cent of people live in extreme poverty. There are shortages of food, of drinking water, of medicines. Inflation last year was down to 700 per cent. It’s less than it was at 3,000 per cent the year before. But inflation is still very, very high.”
While the Latin American countries have openly accepted refugees, persons forcefully displaced from Venezuela reached over 6.83 million this year such that the region is unable to provide full access to food, shelter, healthcare, education, and formal employment according to the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V).
Impact
The crisis has been aggravated due to circumstances of lack of access to food, housing, and stable employment. Persons who have fled also continue to face these depravations in their respective host countries according to reports by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The UNHCR has further argued that the lack of integration opportunities in host countries is a leading factor in furthering secondary displacement. Since 2020, more than 300,000 nationals have had to return to Venezuela where they confront the cyclical lack of access to social services as per the National Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Refugees under the UNHCR mandate (2023) have expressed their experiences; “We walked for 11 days and had to sleep outside. We left because they threatened to kill us. My brother was killed… They almost killed me”. “We left everything in Venezuela. We don’t have a place to live or sleep and have nothing to eat” said a 34-year-old Venezuelan who fled to Brazil.
Current Action
International solidarity with refugees from Venezuela includes calls for systematic documentation and socioeconomic rights. The Solidarity Conference for Venezuelan refugees and migrants and their host communities was held in March 2023 where a pledge of $1.6 billion was made for support. The Member States of the Quito Process also signed a joint declaration emphasising the imperative of sustained international cooperation for Venezuelan refugees.
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has argued that the Venezuelan crisis is one of the most underfunded displacement movements in the world. The US government has provided $2.7 billion since 2017 but this is still grossly inadequate to support the Venezuelan refugees.
Only about 12% (decreased from 27%) of the $1.72 billion requested by the R4V for the 2023-2024 Refugee Response Plan has been collected. It is evident that there is a lack of global attention to this profound and pressing issue. This stands in contrast to some of the other displacement crises which have arisen in recent years. As the CSIS pointed out, “It is critical not to overlook this migrant crisis nor normalize it, as it is evidence of the persistence of the democratic and economic breakdown in this country, which continues to be a threat to the stability of the region and the world”.
This is a message that we should all take on, whenever we deal with and discuss humanitarian issues.
Vrinda Sahai
References
https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/venezuelan-refugee-crisis/
https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/understanding-venezuelan-refugee-crisis?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA67CrBhC1ARIsACKAa8QxAU1HMiAmrfLi7DX7S9JcH-4psG2u0GhFSx0rKUNOHxiJRyX9_V8aAvlMEALw_wcB
https://reliefweb.int/report/venezuela-bolivarian-republic/unhcr-venezuela-situation-fact-sheet-november-2023
https://www.csis.org/analysis/persistence-venezuelan-migrant-and-refugee-crisis
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/emergencies/venezuela-situation
https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/venezuela/
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/understanding-the-venezuelan-refugee-crisis