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| Source: LifeGate |
A historic announcement was made by Colombian President Ivan Duque when he claimed that 2 million Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers will be permitted the protected status in Colombia. This measure will help migrants to have the right to live and work in Columbia for 10 years.
The statement came some days after nullifying a policy that says that undocumented Venezuelans would be prohibited from Colombia's upcoming vaccination campaign. This law means that thousands of migrants have been already legalized and therefore migrants do not have to reapply for temporary warrants or visas.
Colombia has allowed almost more than 1.7 million Venezuelans. Migration administrations are now greater emphasizing the protection of the migrants and asylum seekers to enter through legal checkpoints of the country. This new measure is called “Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan Migrants".
People continue to leave Venezuela because of increased violence, insecurity of life and job, threats as well as a scarcity of food, medicine, vital services.
The protected status will give migrants in Colombia the right to live and promote access to health care and legal livelihood chances. The coronavirus pandemic has severely affected Venezuelans. Consequently, they have faced prolonged stress due to lost jobs and have been hit by poverty and hunger.
This step could assist up to almost two million Venezuelans who currently live in Colombia without legal status. The law applies to Venezuelans who entered before January 2021.
To overcome the problems of migrants and to assist them, the huge support of the government, the private sector, and NGOs will be required throughout the country.
Condition of Venezuela
Venezuela, despite having the world’s largest oil reserves has been faced extreme economic fall and social harm since 2014. The high rate of monetary inflation, food shortages, and power cuts are a daily reality.
There are almost five million refugees and migrants have left Venezuela due to increasing political turmoil, socio-economic instability, humanitarian problems that have forced the major population of Columbia to leave the country and move to neighbouring countries for the support that has resulted in one of the largest displacement problems in Latin America’s modern history.
Thousands of Venezuelans are living without any permission to stay in nearby countries and therefore they lack guaranteed access to work and other human rights. This makes them particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, trafficking, violence, and discrimination.
The majority of refugees and migrants from Venezuela arriving in neighbouring countries are families with children, pregnant women, old people, and people with disabilities.
In this scenario, they are often forced to take irregular paths but like these migrants may become victims to smugglers and traffickers. Many family's conditions are so terrible that they need the immediate assistance of documentation, protection, shelter, food, medicine.
Challenges Ahead
Colombia is currently going through one of its hardest moments, not only the problem of a pandemic but lots of social and political issues are unstable in the country. In these circumstances, providing a home to one million migrants in such a brief term is going to come with a lot of prices.
It's a major challenge for Colombia. Some observers believe that Columbia is a country that is great at making laws but has always faced huge difficulties in applying them.
Columbia is underfunded. It already has millions of internal conflicts and presently faces economic and health crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now to support its current population plus additional demand from Venezuelan citizens is a big issue.
On the country border, public health and education systems have been obstructed by the heavy migratory flows. Colombia's government has asked for global support pointing out that the Venezuelan is one of the most underfunded crowd migrations in recent history.
International aid funds assigned for Venezuelan migrants are too little compared to those funds which are provided to people leaving Syria and Sudan.
For a country with a population of 50 million people, Columbia has recorded 2 million virus cases and almost 56,000 deaths.
The UN has instructed that the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified the situation for Venezuelan refugees and migrants living in the area. This condition has led to border closures leaving migrants vulnerable to risky exploitation from traffickers.
Even Colombia has granted legal status to almost 2 million Venezuelan refugees but the Venezuelan government has sealed its borders making it harder for migrants to leave the country.
Conclusion
This step by the Columbia government is a remarkable one and has set an example for the rest of the world. While many countries have ignored to support the migrants, Colombia has handled the situation totally in a different way.
The measures will also allow Venezuelan migrants to obtain the vaccinations against Covid-19. This initiative is an extraordinary sight of humanity and commitment to human rights.
Colombia has become the country in South America that provides shelter to the largest number of Venezuelan migrants. Many other initiatives are made to step towards assuring the protection of people who had earlier experienced vulnerable situations but now will have enough methods to restore their lives.
Written by - Khushboo Dhuliya
Edited by - Christeena George |
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