Venezuela

The Venezuelan Refugee Crisis

Origins of the Crisis

·        Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves

 

·        Venezuela is a petrostate

·        Petrostate is an informal term to describe a country with the following characteristics:

o   government income is deeply reliant on the export of oil and natural gas

o   economic and political power are highly concentrated in an elite minority

o   political institutions are weak and unaccountable; corruption is widespread

Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez was elected as the president of Venezuela in 1999.
Chavez used oil income to improve the lives of the poor.
He remained the president of Venezuela until his death in 2013.

Nicolas Maduro

When Chavez died Nicolas Maduro stepped in as president and was “reelected” in 2018.
The legitimacy of the election is disputed.
During Maduro's administration, oil production plummeted leading to economic crises.
"Critics blame years of rampant corruption and mismanagement of the state-run oil firm PDVSA." 

Juan Guaido'

Many Venezuelans believe that Juan Guaido',
President of the National Assembly, is the true President of Venezuela. 

Maduro asserts that he is the true president of Venezuela and will not step down.
Foreign governments have threatened to enforce the presidency of Guaido'.

"The following graph illustrates that the oil production in the distressed country has rapidly declined since late 2015, and has fallen off the cliff two years later."

 As oil income declined, Venezuela was thrown into chaos.

Who Becomes a Refugee?

“Over 3 million people have fled the country over the last few years.
This is about 10% of the country’s total population.
In recent months, the numbers of people fleeing the country has intensified.

By some estimates, 25,000 people arefleeing the country every single day.”

Except for the very wealthy, all Venezuelans are potential refugees.

“Nearly 90 percent of the country’s population lives below the poverty line and more than half of families are unable to meet basic food needs.”

  

“Homicides in Caracas top 140 per 100,000people, far outpacing rates in Baghdad and Kabul.
Almost 40 percent of Venezuelans report having been robbed in the last year.”

Psycho-social stressors are particularly hard on women and children. Women eat last in order to feed their children. They work multiple jobs just to afford a little food.  They may feel forced to flee the country without their children so that they can get a job elsewhere to send money back to the relatives who are caring for their children. The children, who are hungry and ill, also can feel abandoned. In addition, lack of contraception and other reproductive healthcare means that already-stressed women may become pregnant again. 

Venezuelan refugees traveling by truck to Colombia.

The Countries to Where Refugees Flee

Refugees in Colombia

The majority of refugees (over 1 million) flee to Colombia.

UN Refugee Camp, La Guajira, Colombia

“Besides tents, the Maicao [La Guajira] camp is home to a Red Crossclinic and a cafeteria. Experts provide psychological counseling and legaladvice. The camp takes in the most vulnerable refugees, especially familieswith young children, many of whom arrive underweight.”

Guzmary Anez and her family were sleeping rough in Maicao until the tent facility was created.

Colombia has been welcoming to Venezuelan Refugees.

"The Colombian government has developed programs to supportVenezuelan migrants, such as a border mobility card to allow migrants to movebetween the two countries and a special work permit known as the PermisoEspecial de Permanencia (PEP), which has allowed hundreds of thousands tolegally stay and work in Colombia for two years."

However, the flood of refugees is overwhelming the country's resources. 

Refugees in Peru
Peru has accepted over 500,000 refugees from Venezuela.

The country had been welcoming refugees and helping them tointegrate by getting them work permits, but the huge number of immigrants hascaused them to increase restrictions.

The Islands

The islands closest to Venezuela, such as Trinidad and Tobago, would be easiest for those in the coastal cities to reach, but they are also small with few resources. They feel forced to turn away refugees because they do not want the country turned into a refugee camp.

Venezuelans returning from Trinidad and Tobago

"We are not in China. We are not Russia. We are not America," he said. "We are a little island--limited space--and therefore we cannot and will not allow the U.N. spokespersons to convert us into a refugee camp."  Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley

Brazil 

Venezuelan refugees fleeing starvation arrive in Pacaraima, Brazil

Pacaraima, Brazil, a small, isolated town, is overwhelmed by Venezuelan refugees.  Most refugees would like to make it to the city of Boa Vista, but cannot afford the trip.

  Children in the Camps 

Children are especially at risk in the refugee crisis.

• Children may be losing their futures while in refugee camps
• Often separated from families, given no education, scared, malnourished, and sick.
• While Colombia has done its best to provide healthcare and education, it simply cannot keep up with the large numbers crossing the border.
• Host countries cannot keep up with refugee’s education.
• Education has the power to protect children, especially during a crisis.
• However, nearly half of the refugee children are not in school. These children have less hope, and will have a harder time going back to their lives, if they ever get the chance.
• Teachers need additional resources for so many new students, and parents are unable to pay for school supplies/uniforms.
  "Education is a lifeline, not a luxury."

 

Groups Who Aid Refugees

Mercy Corps

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR

“For UNHCR, this is one of our largest crises.This is on the scale of Syria,” said Matthew Reynolds, UNHCR’s regionalrepresentative for the United States and the Caribbean, in Washington, D.C. “Inits modern history, Latin America has never experienced an exodus of this dimension.”

“The majority of Venezuelans arriving in neighbouring countries are families with children, pregnant women, elderly people and people with disabilities. Often obliged to take irregular routes to reach safety, they fall prey to smugglers, traffickers and irregular armed groups. As more and more families arrive with fewer and fewer resources, they are in immediate need of protection, shelter, food and medicine.

Host countries and communities inBrazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the southernCaribbean have been generously welcoming them, but are increasinglyoverstretched and some are reaching a saturation point.”


Refugees or Immigrants

US Views on Immigrants

US Views on Refugees

 

“The number of U.S. refugees from Syria and Iran dropped considerably in FY18 due to implementation of the latest version of the Trump administration’s travel ban, which prevents individuals from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and certain government officials from Venezuela from entering the U.S.”

“From October 2017 to September 2018, nearly 29,000 Venezuelans sought asylum in the US.”

“The United Nations estimated 5.3 million Venezuelans will have fled by the end of 2019, but the Trump administration has resisted calls – including those from Republicans – to put in place immigration programs that would let a tiny portion of them seek protection in the US.

The administration has resisted using Temporary ProtectedStatus (TPS), a designation that allows people of a certain nationality toremain in the US because of extraordinary circumstances in their home country.”

US Religious Attitudes Towards Refugees

“No group agrees less with the idea that the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees than white evangelical Protestants.

Only 25 percent of evangelicals told Pew that they believed the United States has such a responsibility, half the percentage of Catholics who said the same thing and substantially lower than the religiously unaffiliated. In statistical terms,the percentage of evangelicals holding that view was about equal to the percentage of Republicans, 26 percent, given margins of error.”

While many in the South tend to be opposed to resettling refugees in their states, one Southern town is bucking that trend with great success.

 Refugees in Clarkston, Georgia community garden.

“Clarkston, a small town in Georgia, has received over 40,000 refugees over the past 25years. They come from every corner of the globe.”

“The self-proclaimed ‘Ellis Island of the south’ is now seeing not only refugees and poor immigrants arrive. Its reputation has prompted a swell of middle-class professional Americans, who – in the words of the city’s 34-year-old mayor, Ted Terry – are ‘in search of all the trappings of diversity’.”