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WORLD NEWS Thursday 1 sepTember 2022
Venezuelan migration picks up, reaches about 6.8M

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Data compiled by the In-
Associated Press teragency Coordination
LOS PATIOS, Colombia (AP) Platform for Refugees and
— Arbelys Briceño fixed her Migrants, which involves
eyes on the chicken soup about 200 humanitarian
in the plastic container set organizations, show gov-
before her, the first warm ernments have recorded
meal she'd had in days. the arrival of 753,000 Ven-
She began eating slowly, ezuelan migrants, refu-
almost hesitantly, but then gees and asylum seekers
picked up the pace — and since November in 17 Latin
snagged another serving American and Caribbean
when soup kitchen workers countries.
offered seconds. The platform's data also
It was her eighth day on a show the overall popula-
journey from her Venezu- tion of such Venezuelans
elan hometown to Peru, in those countries had de-
a country the 14-year-old clined slightly for a time
couldn't place on a map last year, from 4,620,185 in
but that her older brother January to 4,598,355 in July.
had set as their destination. The platform's figures don't
Mosquitoes had marked include all migrants as
her legs. The sun had baked some countries don't count
her face. those who are illegally pres-
"It is as if it were a vacation Migrants from Venezuela cross into Chile from the Bolivian border near Colchane, Chile, Dec. 9, ent and they don't include
but with lots of walking," 2021. figures for other countries,
Arbelys said with an out- Associated Press such as the United States.
look far more upbeat than Pandemic lockdowns and
that of most Venezuelan November, according to at two sites. chronic shortages. border closures also have
migrants trying to escape data from receiving coun- Jhon Alvarez, coordina- Rrestaurants, imported pushed migrants to riskier
poverty in their once-pros- tries, even as the govern- tor of the Fundación Nue- goods stores, exercise stu- paths. Mexico recently im-
perous country. ment of President Nicolas va Ilusión — roughly New dios and other businesses posed a visa requirement
About 6.8 million Venezu- Maduro continues to tout Hope Foundation in English have opened in the capi- for Venezuelans, so instead
elans have left their home- economic growth. Colom- — said he is increasingly tal, Caracas. Maduro re- of flying to a country bor-
land since an economic bia, which had not report- seeing familiar faces at the cently said the country's dering the U.S., Venezu-
crisis took hold in earnest ed updated figures since soup kitchen. economy grew 17.4% dur- elan migrants now often
in 2014 for the country of November, posted a jump "People are returning from ing the first three months of trek northward across Cen-
some 28 million people. of roughly 635,000 between the other countries — Chile, 2022. tral America after crossing
Most have gone to nearby that month and August. Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia — But Venezuela still has one the Darien Gap, a road-
nations in Latin America By the time Arbelys, her again to Venezuela, but af- of the world's highest infla- less jungle straddling the
and the Caribbean. More sister and their brother ter 15 days or a month they tion rates and about three Colombia-Panama border
than 2.4 million are in Co- reached Colombia, they can't stand it, and they quarters of the population where thieves, swollen riv-
lombia, where Arbelys and had walked about 370 come back," Alvarez said. lives on less than $1.90 a ers, rough terrain and wild
her brother had paused on miles (600 kilometers). She He said they tell him, "'Look, day, an international stan- animals are common.
their trek. had been unable to sleep I had to come back be- dard for extreme poverty. Panama's government said
That huge migration slowed one night — they had cause the situation is still the Many lack access to clean, 45,000 Venezuelans had
as the pandemic cut eco- stayed on a sidewalk and same (or) it's worse. They running water and electric- entered its territory that
nomic opportunities and she was startled by noises. raised the minimum wage, ity. way so far this year, up from
complicated travel across She slipped and fell twice yes they did, but there's no "Hope is the last thing to be only 3,000 last year.
the region and as Ven- as they walked along a work.'" lost, but at the moment, Arbelys, the 13th of 14 sib-
ezuela's socialist govern- muddy back road to cross Nowadays, 48% of migrants there is none," Frank Fernan- lings, said she did not know
ment adopted reforms that the border. surveyed by a network of dez said as he tried to con- if she would get to enroll
slowed the country's eco- Her brother, on the jour- assistance agencies cited tact his family from the soup at school once she gets to
nomic free-fall and gave ney for a second time, lack of employment and kitchen to let them know Peru. She was not even sure
some appearance of re- knew better than to allow low salaries as their main he had reached Colombia where in Peru she would
vival. the harsh sun to crisp his reason to leave Venezuela, with his brother. They were live.
About 150,000 Venezu- skin and slathered his face while 40% mentioned diffi- headed to Chile, where An aid worker at a shel-
elans returned to their with sunscreen, which had culties obtaining food and Fernandez had worked for ter near the border had
homeland at the height of formed streaks on his fore- basic services, according four years before testing his warned her of the dangers
the coronavirus pandemic, head. to the Venezuelan office luck again in Venezuela. she could face during the
according to United Na- Outside the soup kitchen in of the United Nations High The 19-year-old used to rest of the journey.
tions' estimates, and some Los Patios, about 4.5 miles Commissioner for Refugees. earn about $43 a day work- "My brothers tell me that
host countries reported a (7.5 kilometers) inside Co- Maduro has taken steps to ing construction in Chile. At nothing is going to hap-
decline in the overall count lombia, migrants quickly halt the country's econom- home, he could only find pen to me," said Arbelys,
of Venezuelan immigrants cram around an outdoor ic decline, chief among work cleaning windshields whose parents stayed be-
for the first time in years. table once the chain link them ending strict foreign at a gas station. He and hind. "Along the journey, I
But the outward march is fence door opens. currency controls, leading his brother walked up to 25 feel scared sometimes be-
on the rise again. Some learned from friends to a de facto switch from miles (40 kilometers) a day cause (the aid worker) also
At least 753,000 Venezue- or other migrants about the the Venezuelan bolivar to until they entered Colom- told me about human traf-
lans have left their country operation, whose cooks the U.S. dollar. That broke a bia along one of the hun- ficking and how they try to
for another in Latin Ameri- prepare upward of 40 gal- years-long cycle of hyper- dreds of dirt roads across trick you. I'm very trusting,
ca or the Caribbean since lons of soup for each meal inflation and helped ease the border. so that scares me a little."q