Page 12 - aruba-today-20190620

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 20 June 2019
UN: Venezuelans now file 1 in 5 of all new asylum claims

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO later applied for asylum in
FRANKLIN BRICEÑO Colombia.
Associated Press Valles currently has permis-
LIMA, Peru (AP) — When sion to work and live in the
Johan Álvarez was unable country for 90 days. Even
to provide more than one though it can be repeated-
meal a day for his young ly renewed, he said com-
family he knew it was time panies have been reluc-
to leave Venezuela. tant to hire him, not having
With his wife and infant son, any guarantee that he will
the 25-year-old embarked have legal status for more
on a lengthy journey by bus than three months.
through three nations to Many of his compatri-
reach Peru earlier this year. ots are in even more dire
Now they are among a straits: Over a third of Ven-
growing swell of Venezu- ezuelans in Colombia have
elans asking to be recog- no legal status, which often
nized as refugees. forces them to take low-
A United Nations report re- paying and even abusive
leased Wednesday finds jobs on the black market.
that Venezuelans represent "Venezuelans in Colombia
the largest group world- should be treated as refu-
wide filing new asylum gees," he said. "For many
claims. Those fleeing the reasons other than whether
troubled South American Venezuelan migrants wait at an immigration control point on the Ecuador-Peru border, before or not there is an armed
the end of a special visa program and tightened entry requirements that demand passports, in
nation made more than Tumbes, Peru, June 14, 2019. conflict."
one in five of all asylum Associated Press Several nations, includ-
requests in 2018, higher ing Colombia, continue to
than the number of claims opinion or membership in a are doing so in increasingly grants are discouraged forcibly remove migrants
made by people escaping particular group. complex circumstances," from applying because the despite the dangers they
Afghanistan and Syria. But a more encompassing said Federico Agusti, the process can take as long as might face back home,
But Venezuela is not in the definition in the 1984 Carta- U.N. refugee agency's rep- two or three years. Others while other countries are
midst of war and many gena Declaration includes resentative in Peru. "It's not have been told only strict confronting a myriad of ad-
foreign governments are people fleeing hunger and just a humanitarian crisis. cases of political persecu- ditional issues.
reluctant to recognize the poverty resulting from the The reason they had to tion or desertion will be ac- The United States has re-
migrants as refugees. breakdown of rule of law — leave is because their life knowledged. ceived some 81,800 asy-
On a recent overcast day conditions which a much was in danger." Gabriel Valles is one of lum requests from Venezu-
in Peru's capital, Álvarez wider group of Venezue- David Smolansky, a Ven- those hoping his seemingly elans and President Donald
filed into a line with about lans are experiencing. ezuela opposition leader shoo-in case in Venezuela's Trump recently said his ad-
a hundred other Venezue- To date, more than 460,000 who himself escaped in a neighboring country will be ministration is considering
lan arrivals filing for asylum, Venezuelans have sought journey through the jungle accepted. granting legal temporary
hoping his family's tale of asylum, including nearly of Brazil, is now the coordi- The 32-year-old systems en- protective status to thou-
hunger back home would 350,000 in 2018 alone, ac- nator of a migrant working gineer and opposition ac- sands of Venezuelans who
be enough to earn them cording to the U.N. A large group led by the Washing- tivist spent more than two have fled.
refugee status. number of those claims are ton-based Organization of years in a Venezuelan high- But Niels Frenzen, a law pro-
"It's not a war of arms," he being filed in Peru, where American States. He has security detention center fessor and director of the
said. "But it is a war of sur- some 800,000 Venezuelans been traveling throughout run by the government's University of South Califor-
vival." now reside. the Americas encouraging feared intelligence agency nia's immigration clinic, said
As Venezuela's crisis drags Last year, Peru received nations to apply the Carta- that is located five levels the TPS push faces an uphill
on, the number fleeing is 192,500 claims — an as- gena Declaration, which underground and known battle because of the po-
rising by alarming num- toundingly high number was signed by several of as "The Tomb." litical conundrum it creates
bers. The United Nations that has created a back- the Latin American nations There were no windows for Trump and his tough-on-
estimates there are now log. Just over 1,000 Ven- where Venezuelans are and the lights were almost immigration stance.
4 million Venezuelans liv- ezuelans have gotten their now arriving. always kept on, he re- "You have these opposing
ing abroad — a quarter asylum requests approved. "If you give them refugee called. political desires, at least
of whom have fled since Worldwide, only about status, it will guarantee pro- The only way he could tell in the current U.S. govern-
November. The Organiza- 21,000 Venezuelans have tection," he said. "I think it if it might be day or night ment," he said.
tion of American States es- been recognized as refu- will create a commitment was by the hum of a metro In Peru, the number of asy-
timates the number could gees to date. from the international com- line that ran nearby. If trains lum applications is soaring
reach 7.5 million by the end The U.N. report released munity to cooperate more." were passing by more fre- partly because it has be-
of 2020. Wednesday notes the Ven- Accepting a broader defi- quently, he reasoned, it come easier to make re-
The widely used definition ezuela migration crisis has nition of who constitutes a must be daytime. quests. At the border, Ven-
of refugee is someone who increasingly taken on the refugee is particularly rel- "I always asked myself if the ezuelans can submit their
has fled his or her home- "characteristics of a refu- evant in Colombia, where people who took the Ca- documents for refugee sta-
land because of perse- gee situation" and says it is large numbers of Venezu- racas metro had any idea tus, which is one of the only
cution, war or violence. clear that international pro- elans have fled. that below them exists a ways they can enter after
Asylum claimants typically tection considerations "are Despite taking in an esti- place where people are the implementation of new
have to show that they applicable to the majority mated 1.3 million Venezu- jailed," he said. requirements that made it
cannot return due to a of Venezuelans." Such pro- elans, neighboring Colom- He was transferred to an- impossible to cross without
well-founded fear of perse- tections could spare them bia has received just 2,729 other jail before being re- a passport. For Álvarez, ap-
cution because of race, re- from deportation. asylum claims, according leased after nearly four plying for such status was
ligion, nationality, political "People fleeing Venezuela to U.N. data. Many mi- years behind bars, and he his best option.q