Starting August 2, 2018, Venezuelans will have rights to health, education and employment in Colombia. With a decree approved by President Santos, around 400 thousand Venezuelans are now regular migrants. Other countries should follow the lead.
Venezuela’s migrant and refugee population has been —in many cases— forced to face xenophobia and discrimination. Integrating to a new society is never an easy ride, but intolerance definitely makes the road bumpier.
As Venezuela keeps massively exporting both migrants and refugees, the question remains whether the international community is ready to call the situation a crisis. Defining what a “crisis” is remains a challenge.
Alba Cecilia Pereira has been living in Colombia since 2004. She founded Entre2Tierras, to help Venezuelan immigrants get jobs, housing, medicine and food when they get there.
The numbers keep mounting: Venezuela’s migrant crisis is on a massive scale, and growing. With three million already gone, how many more people can we afford to lose?
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