Venezuela Refugees

Venezuela refugees

Approach

Venezuela’s refugees are people who have been forced to flee from Venezuela as a result of the violation of their rights, violence, insecurity, persecution for political opinions, unemployment, food crisis, lack of medicines, corruption and hyperinflation that together have beencataloged by the OAS as a humanitarian crisis 1 and that need international protection in accordance with national and regional regulations, in particular the Convention on the Statute of Refugees of 19512 and the Declaration of Cartagena.3

The Venezuelan migration crisis has become one of the largest in the world, both for the seriousness of the internal situation in the country and by the uncoordinated and volatile response from the rest of Latin American countries. Between one and three million Venezuelans has set up outside the country in the last four years, and the trend does not seem to send.

The emigration of Venezuelans is on its way to being the greatest exodus seen in the history of Latin America, and the trend leads a path similar to the one we have already seen with the millions of Syrians who have left their country. It is estimated that since 2014, about one million have left the country and approximately 300.000 have requested refugee status in other countries. However, this migratory pressure is also generating increasing xenophobia outbreaks in neighboring states and increasingly restrictive immigration policies towards Venezuelans.

Ethics application

Refugees, fleeing wars, violence, hunger, the absence of the future, are finding the most forceful wall that exists: the moral misery of a Europe that has decided to throw international law to garbage and, afterThe agreement with Turkey has begun to return to all immigrants in a miserable and automatic way, deserve international protection or not.

To Cristine Lagarde from the International Monetary Fund (that place little given to ethical subtleties) has warned Europe that refugees can be in the medium term a source of wealth that given the atony of the economy of the old continent we should not despise.

However, embedded in the most insensitive common denominator policy, forgetting the basic values of the EU and with the coward. A moral, ethical and legal commitment. Do not forget the latter. This is certified by the 1951 International Convention on refugees.

THE ACNUR IN VENEZUELA

The ACNUR office in Venezuela opened its doors in 1991 to meet the needs of people who request recognition of the refugee status in Venezuela. One of the main roles of ACNUR in Venezuela is to provide technical advice to government entities responsible for guaranteeing the rights of refugees and applicants for refugee status.

UNHCR collaborates closely with governments, regional, international and non -governmental organizations, academia and the private sector to contribute to the protection and assistance of refugees.

In recent years, about 200 thousand people have arrived in Venezuela with international protection needs, of which more than 95% have been people of Colombian nationality who were forced to flee their land for persecutions, threats from different armed groups andSituations of extreme violence. Each refugee comes with a story. Many of them painful, but always housing the hope of a new beginning full of joy and opportunities.

Procedure for determining refugee status in Venezuela

In Venezuela, the determination of the refugee status is carried out by the Venezuelan State through the National Refugee Commission (Conare: multi-ministerial entity attached to the MPPPRE) and the regional instances created by law, called Regional Technical Secretariats (STR).

These regional technical secretariats are located in Caracas and in the border states with Colombia: Apure, Táchira and Zulia. Applications for recognition of the refugee status can be submitted to the National Commission for Refugees and their Secretaries or before the ACNUR offices, but the evaluation and decision of the cases is the exclusive competence of the CONARE.

Principles that can be applied

• The agency acknowledges that a large number of Venezuelans are leaving their country to a large number of destinations, not only in Latin America, but worldwide. "Although individual circumstances and reasons for these movements vary, international protection considerations have become evident for a significant proportion of Venezuelans.".
• UNHCR invites all countries to take into account the Venezuelan reality and the number of immigrants who are leaving the South American country and “allow them to access their territory and continue to adopt adequate and pragmatic responses oriented to protection and based onthe good practices existing in the region ".
• The document indicates that the states that have seen the flow of Venezuelan immigrants should adjust their asylum systems to consider giving options to these citizens. “This could, for example, include several forms of international protection, even under international human rights law, and temporary protection or stay agreements, or alternatively visas or labor migratory mechanisms that can offer access to legal residence and treatment to a treatmentstandard similar to international protection ".

• Given the current situation in Venezuela, UNHCR asks countries to take measures not.
• The statement published by the agency invites the countries that signed the 1974 Cartagena Declaration to apply the concept of refugee to Venezuelan immigrants, in order to ensure access to an asylum system, which takes into account the reality of theSouth American nation. It should be noted that this document was signed between the countries of Central America and Mexico against the conflicts that the region lived, and its application was initially limited to Latin American countries.
• ACNUR also offers support to all countries and also asks for measures to fight against racism, discrimination and xenophobia that this wave of Venezuelan immigrants can face

CONCLUSION

It seems that Venezuela is one of the only countries that really interests the integrity and integration of the Latin American continent. We do not say that the peoples do not feel that bond of brotherhood and solidarity, that we verify that there is truly, but now that attitude of several governments can also be seen. Venezuela not only represents another way of understanding the world today, but has the necessary strength and desire to bank what that carries. It is true that it is the richest country in the region, and therefore, at this time of capitalism, the logic would indicate otherwise, which would have to close and take advantage of at any cost, such as the case of Germany in the European Union,sinking to the rest of the countries to avoid joining the crisis that plagues Europe. But from a social logic, it is understandable that what prevails in Venezuela is solidarity with its sister countries. And that, transcends the government, that solidarity feeling towards those of other countries we feel it from many of those who are part of that beautiful people.