As more Venezuelans leave, neighboring countries take notice.
| Autor | Conaway, Janelle |
With Venezuela's political, economic, security, and humanitarian crisis deepening, South America is seeing a growing wave of Venezuelan migrants (NotiSur, March 17, 2017, and April 21, 2017). These are no longer the most privileged Venezuelans--many of those left in the early years of the Bolivarian revolution--but often the more desperate. Some are making perilous journeys into the hinterlands of Brazil, while tens of thousands more have poured into Colombia--in many cases, returning to the country their families had fled decades ago. On a much smaller scale, some Venezuelans have even set out to sea in rickety boats to try their luck in Aruba or Curasao. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) recently called on countries in the region to take special measures to protect Venezuelan migrants (NotiSur, July 8, 2016).
"At a time when the building of walls and the closure of borders is being encouraged, it is critical for the protection of migrants and refugees that states provide legal and safe channels for people to migrate," said Margarette May Macaulay, the IACHR's rapporteur on the rights of migrants. In a news release on the situation of Venezuelan migrants, she called for countries to "promote regularization of migration for those who have been forced to recur to irregular migration channels," and suggested such alternatives as humanitarian admission, refugee resettlement, or guest worker programs, among others.
Some countries are already taking action. Brazil's National Immigration Council announced in March that it would grant two-year residence permits to Venezuelans, "a move that could ease pressure on the overwhelmed Brazilian asylum process if adequately implemented," noted a report by Human Rights Watch.
Earlier this year, Peru began issuing special temporary resident permits to Venezuelans, allowing them to study, work, access health services, and pay taxes while their immigration papers are being processed, or until they can return home. When The New York Times asked the head of Peru's immigration agency, Eduardo Sevilla, why the country had taken such a step, he paused and said, "Because we Peruvians are a people who remember."
Indeed, Venezuela took in massive numbers of Peruvians and other South Americans in the dark years of the 1970s and 1980s. As Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra recalled recently --during one of several contentious meetings on Venezuela at the Organization of American States...
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