For a year, Colombian Marnellis Muentes and her neighbors have opened their small homes in a hilltop slum to dozens of Venezuelan families.
Muentes was forced to flee during Colombia’s conflict and feels a moral duty to help Venezuelans fleeing political turmoil and economic meltdown in their homeland.
However, the Venezuelan crisis threatens to overwhelm Colombia and other countries in South America and is likely to test their good will next year as migration and asylum claims from other Latin America nations, especially Nicaragua, increase.
Illustration: Constance Chou
About 3.3 million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 and the UN has estimated that about 2 million more, from a population of 32 million, could follow next year.
“I know what it’s like to have to leave home with nothing. I’ve experienced the suffering, the hunger that Venezuelans are going through,” Muentes said.
“It breaks my heart seeing children beg for food. I had to do something to help,” added Muentes, who provides free shelter in her home in the border city of Cucuta.
Every day, about 5,000 Venezuelans leave home, according to the UN, in one of the biggest exodus of people in contemporary South American history.
About one in every 10 people in Venezuela has fled the country over the past three years, with about 1 million living in Colombia, 500,000 in Peru, 222,000 in Ecuador, 130,000 in Argentina and 85,000 in Brazil, as well as tens of thousands living on several Caribbean islands.
“There’s a sense of solidarity, which is very admirable,” Norwegian Refugee Council secretary-general Jan Egeland said.
“The 35 countries in Europe collectively panicked because 1 million people came to 35 countries in 2015 across the Mediterranean,” Egeland said. “Now, five nations in Latin America received 3 million and they still haven’t closed the borders.”
Yet, there are signs that the solidarity and good will are waning in countries already battling poverty and poor economies.
“There are no adequate education and assistance programs, which means that there will be more social tension within the group and between the groups in the host communities,” Egeland said.
With the highest number of Venezuelans living in neighboring Colombia, its schools, hospitals and other services are struggling to cope.
Rising numbers of Venezuelans are seen begging at city traffic lights, and sleeping outside in parks and tent settlements.
According to the Colombian government, the influx of Venezuelan immigrants costs Colombia about 0.5 percent of its GDP per year — equivalent to US$1.5 billion.
While most Colombians, such as Muentes, are sympathetic to the Venezuelans’ plight, xenophobia has increased, including reports of attacks on migrants.
Tensions between locals and migrants are also increasingly strained in Ecuador, where the government has said it needs about US$550 million to provide aid to migrants.
In Brazil, which shares a border with Venezuela and where more than 65,000 Venezuelans have requested asylum so far, tensions have also flared up.
In Brazil’s border town of Pacaraima in August, security forces were sent in after camps of Venezuelans were set ablaze.
Since the exodus began in 2015, countries in South America have largely kept their borders open to Venezuelans, but there are signs that that is changing.
This month, Chile refused to sign a UN migration pact aimed at improving migrant integration and protection. Chile now requires Venezuelans to apply for entry at consulates in Venezuela and to show a passport, which many do not have.
The UN has appealed for US$738 million next year to help Venezuela’s neighbors, as so far South America has been on its own.
“I think the humanitarian response and funding, and even diplomatic interest, in this crisis has really lagged behind,” International Rescue Committee senior director Amanda Catanzano said.
“The scale of the crisis is staggering. The magnitude and effect are still not understood. It’s growing — and that’s not sustainable in the absence of a coordinated regional response, the likes of which we really haven’t seen yet.”
Poor diplomatic relations between Venezuela and its neighbors, especially Colombia and Brazil, mean that such a regional plan is unlikely to materialize anytime soon.
“We basically need to talk with other — whether that’s with the opposition, neighbors and north to south,” Egeland said. “There must be a regional effort.”
Elsewhere in Latin America, thousands of migrants from Central America, mainly El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, leave their homes every year, fleeing gang violence, poverty and joblessness to seek a better life in the US.
“It’s entire families. It’s not anymore the youngest, the strongest,” UN High Commission for Refugees spokeswoman Francesca Fontanini said.
The hardline immigration policies of US President Donald Trump have seen record numbers of parents traveling with children being apprehended trying to cross the US border with Mexico.
Cashing in on Trump’s tough stance are human smugglers, known as “coyotes,” who now charge double for the trip — US$10,000 a person, Fontanini said.
“The journey up north is much longer, more risky,” Fontanini said. “Since Trump, it’s much more difficult to cross the border.”
What is certain is that the exodus will continue, Muentes said.
“As long as people don’t feel safe and have no food, they will keep coming,” Muentes added. “They have no other choice.”
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