A Case for International Recognition: The Venezuelan Migration Crisis
Venezuelan Migrants cross through unregulated crossing points, or trochas, along the Táchira River on the Venezuelan-Colombian border. Colombia hosts the highest proportion of Venezuelan migrants.
On February 8, 2021, Colombian President Ivan Duque and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi announced that Colombia would grant temporary protective status to all Venezuelan migrants in the country. Affecting over one million Venezuelans in Colombia, the “Estatuto de Protección Temporal,” (Temporary Statute of Protection), would allow migrants to work with a protected legal status for up to 10 years, with access to health and education services. Grandi called the move “historic” and “the most important humanitarian gesture in the region for decades,” specifically due to Colombia’s status as a relatively poor nation in the region.
The current Venezuelan migration crisis has currently seen a forced mass exodus of almost five million Venezuelans, amassing to around 16% of the population. In recent years, Venezuelans have fled mainly by foot and by bus to neighboring nations due to an ongoing economic and humanitarian crisis that has led to little to no employment, food, or electricity, and a subpar standard of living, according to Human Rights Watch. Venezuelans have migrated mainly to other nations in Latin America, though some have fled to the United States and Europe, particularly those of European descent who were able to obtain dual citizenship with a European country. Within Latin America, Colombia hosts the largest number of Venezuelan migrants at almost 1.8 million, followed by Peru at one million, and then Chile and Ecuador with around 420,000 Venezuelan migrants each.
Colombia’s openness to Venezuelan migrants stems from their past history of migration in the other direction, that is, from Columbia to Venezuela, and a more fluid border, with commerce and travel between the two countries being a common occurrence. Venezuela was once a destination for European immigrants after the Second World War and Colombian immigrants in the late 20th century. During the 1980s and 1990s, Venezuela received many Colombian migrants due to internal conflict and violence in Colombia that led to mass displacement. In the 1990s, Colombians made up around 77% of all immigrants in Venezuela.
Today’s migrant crisis in Colombia has grown with a recent exodus of the poorest Venezuelans fleeing by foot and by bus to the border, either to remain in border towns, continue into the interior or Colombia, or move south to other nations. Many Venezuelans cross into Colombia with the hopes of escaping the crisis in their home countries and being able to live and work in Colombia. Prior to the recent announcement of the temporary protective status, Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia could apply for the temporary Permiso Especial de Permanencia (Special Permit to Remain) also known as the PEP. The PEP, whose application was only open during certain times of the year, was a two-year legal status that allowed around 708,000 Venezuelans to reside in the country with temporary access to basic services and the labor market. Despite this, around 56% of Venezuelans in Colombia still resided in an irregular status.
Second to only the Syrian refugee crisis, Venezuela is one of the largest mass-migration crises in modern history. However, unlike Syrians, Venezuelans are not recognized internationally as ‘refugees.’ In comparison to a nationally regularized migrant or asylum status, refugee status grants individual international protection. Under the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, a refugee is defined as an individual who, “owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” Refugee status can be granted by the United Nations or an individual country where qualifying migrants reside. Depending on the nation, countries that grant individuals refugee status receive assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is able to provide support through the form of funding, physical supplies, and more.
Most significantly, an international refugee status protects from “refoulement,” or forcibly returning migrants to their country of origin. Under an internationally recognized status, individual nations cannot enact policies of refoulement, which ensures the protection of migrants in their destination countries.
The historical intricacies of Latin American migration crises meant that many migrants did not fall into this category of “refugee,” which did not take into consideration violations of human rights or mass protests. In 1984, ten Latin American countries came together and signed the Cartagena Declaration, which expanded the definition of refugees to include qualifications that responded to mass crises in Central America in the 1980s that saw masses of migrants leave the region. This new definition included refugees to also be “persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order.”
Despite this expanded definition of what constituted a “refugee,” the only nation to grant Venezuelans refugee status has been Brazil, where now an estimated 46,000 Venezuelans possess refugee status, the highest number of any country in the region. The move came in two phases when in 2019, Brazil recognized 21,000 Venezuelans as refugees followed by around 17,000 more in January 2020. Although high for the region, Venezuelans with refugee status make up only around 18% of the Venezuelan population in Brazil.
Brazil’s Refugee Law of 1997 gave the opportunity for this move when it expanded this definition to include a wider range of qualifications for refugee status: “every person who leaves his/her country of origin because of well-founded fear of persecution...due to a situation of grave and widespread human rights violation in his/her country of origin,” on top of the qualifications already stated under the UN Refugee Convention.
The Organization of American States (OAS) has recommended that the region work towards enacting policies to protect migrants through guarantees of non-refoulement, especially regarding the conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many Venezuelans who do cross into neighboring Latin American nations at unregulated crossing points do so through trochas, unregularized crossing points, typically over rough terrain or rivers. They are often ridden with gangs and violence, and the most vulnerable populations—women, children, and the elderly—face a great risk of crossing and falling victim to trafficking. Many Venezuelans pay traffickers to cross them into Colombia and further into South America, and are thus at the control of those who crossed them without status to remain or work in their destination country. With the closing of many borders amid the Covid-19 pandemic, crossing at trochas has only increased. Those who cross into Colombia through trochas are able to apply for this temporary status, but many live in fear of being sent back to Venezuela despite the government’s effort to grant status to all, no matter their pathway of arrival.
Venezuelans outside of continental South America face similar challenges in their journey, risking their lives to make it to shore in other nations in the hopes of gaining status to remain. On December 6, 2020, a boat carrying Venezuelan migrants was en route from Trinidad and Tobago back to Venezuela when it capsized, killing 24 migrants. Again, in April 2021, another boat capsized. Many people still remain missing. These tragedies occurred because these migrants fled Venezuela in the hopes of gaining some sort of legal status in Trinidad and Tobago, only to be turned away. Had these migrants been protected internationally as “refugees,” this tragedy may have been avoided.
Following the tragedy, the Secretary-General of the OAS called on Latin American nations to “[abide] by the non-refoulement principle and international law.” But non-refoulement, a key part of international law, is not always guaranteed at a national level as it is with refugee status.
Extending temporary legal status for Venezuelans has also been pushed for in the United States. The movement to give Venezuelan migrants fleeing violence TPS or “Temporary Protected Status,” has failed three times in the US Senate due to a lack of bipartisan support. But a March 2021 push brought the topic back for a new administration which was then approved by President Joe Biden. The United States currently has the fifth-largest population of Venezuelans, with over 350,000 migrants in the country. Just over 300,000 of these Venezuelans are now eligible for TPS in the United States, the majority of the Venezuelan population in the country. This stride by the United States to give temporary status and work permits to its Venezuelan community shows the greater extent of the crisis; however, TPS does not mean permanent status. Unlike asylum, it does not give a path to citizenship, and at the hands of the president can end and leave former TPS recipients in limbo.
Although it is a huge step, with Colombia receiving the majority of Venezuelan migrants in the world, there is still much work to be done. Of the around five million Venezuelans displaced in the world today, over three million are in countries outside of Colombia, many in countries where they rely on temporary legal status or live undocumented.
This move by President Ivan Duque is significant simply because of the sheer amount of Venezuelans who are now able to benefit from legal status. However, as historic as it is, Colombia’s declaration cannot and must not be the end for Venezuelans. The world must see the international significance of a crisis of this scale and respond accordingly. Colombia’s decision must set a precedent for other nations with Venezuelans to take action, see Colombia as an example to end the crisis, and go even further to give justice to the Venezuelan community.
Astrid is a rising junior in Columbia College studying Human Rights/Political Science and Latin American & Caribbean Studies. As a Venezuelan herself, Astrid is passionate about issues of migration and justice in the region and around the world.
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