Venezuela, a country on the northern coast of South America, best known for having the world’s largest oil reserves and being one of the world’s leading oil exporters, has been in the midst of a massive humanitarian crisis for several years, caused by the collapsing of the Venezuelan economy under President Nicolas Maduro.
The ever-going political turmoil in the country plays a monumental role in worsening the crisis.
The Presidential Crisis
The current political conflict is between Nicolas Maduro, who won a controversial election in 2018, and Juan Guaidó, leader of the country’s National Assembly, who used a constitutional provision and proclaimed himself to be the President in 2019.
Maduro’s government denies the presence of any crisis in the country and is hence blocking all the aid sent in the form of food and medicine from reaching the Venezuelan citizens. If a volunteer attempts to deliver any form of aid, clashes between the military and aid organizations ensue.
Recipe for a Humanitarian Emergency
The economic crisis of the country has only been worsening since 2014. The country’s northern coasts have suffered huge losses due to declining tourism and seizing of Cumaná- a major port of the Sucre region, by the national oil company.
The small-scale fishing industry also suffered from the organized crime inflicted upon them. According to a study by Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics, 52% of the Sucre region’s residents which are nearly one million, are poverty struck, and 20% of them face extreme poverty.
The country’s unemployment rate is at a massive 42% and the inflation forecast for 2021 is set at 5,500%. This hyperinflation has devalued the Venezuelan Bolivar enormously, accompanied by a huge drop in the country’s wage rate.
The U.S. Dollar is in use as currency, but no banks allow any transfer in it. According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance, a private sector worker makes around $70 a month, whereas a public sector employee makes a bare $4.70 a month.
Each of these factors contributed to what is known as a Complex Humanitarian Emergency (CHE) in the country and a few of its neighbours, particularly Columbia. Shrinking resources, difficulty in accessing necessities such as food, and a high unemployment rate, have led millions of desperate citizens to flee the country.
This emergency has been intensified due to COVID-19. The country, despite having the largest oil reserves, is facing critical country-wide fuel shortages caused by a lack of refining resources. Coupled with shortages of natural gas, clean water, and electricity, these fuel shortages caused an average of 25 demonstrations per day in September 2020, as reported by the Venezuela Observatory of Social Conflict.
Since the onset of COVID-19, Columbia officially closed its border with Venezuela. This did little to stop the movement of the Venezuelan citizens in search of a better life, who started resorting to illegal border crossings instead of the now-closed official one.
The Only Way Out
Eager to escape the country’s humanitarian crisis and economic meltdown, Trinidad and Tobago became an important destination for the tens of thousands in search of food, medicine, and work. A major obstacle here lies in the fact that for them to reach their destination, they have to cross Bocas del Dragón.
Now, Bocas del Dragón, or “mouths of the dragon”, is a dangerous waterway known for human smuggling, shipwrecks, narco-trafficking, and piracy. The migrants have to go through all of it, before hoping to land a chance to slip past the immigration officials post reaching Trinidad. Shipwrecks have become increasingly common in the past few years.
Reports about boats reported missing, vessels sinking and boats capsizing, drowning people along with them, have flooded newspaper headlines over recent years. The small island, due to an influx of around 24,000 Venezuelan migrants and an existing population of nearly 1.4 million, finds its resources increasingly strained.
The country’s one and only Immigration Detention Centre complains about not having enough budget to continue housing detained migrants in suitable conditions. The irregular migrant journeys, involving hiring smugglers to sneak them into the country, getting jobs through brokers, and working undocumented, have been known to put the migrants at an increased risk for being victims of sexual and labour exploitation.
Cleophas Justine Pierre, a Caribbean migration expert, estimated in a report in 2019, that as many as 4,000 victims from Güiria alone had been trafficked to Trinidad and Tobago over the past six years. Figures have likely grown since then.
Trinidadian media has reported cases of law enforcement and immigration officials working directly with criminals who were involved in the sexual trafficking of migrants and women sold into slavery.
Increasing xenophobia has also started sprouting since around July 2020 when Trinidad and Tobago’s security minister referred to Venezuelans as “boat people” and blamed them for “representing a serious health issue”.
Their government seems to blame all their fallings on the migrants along with the pandemic making the situation worse. One cannot see this humanitarian crisis within Venezuela subsiding in the foreseeable future, neither can one see any signs of migration through these treacherous straits abating.
For a Venezuelan citizen struggling to earn his daily bread, there is little that he wouldn’t endure crossing the border to do just a bit better for himself and his family.
Written by - Rishika Taneja
Edited by - Piyush Pandey
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