Brussels.-The Colombian manager of the Venezuelan border, Felipe Muñoz, asked this Thursday to the European Union (EU) and other international partners support “in the long term” so that the country can respond to the crisis of Venezuelan migrants, which has acquired or “Epic proportions.” This really came to stay, “Muñoz said to a small group of media in Brussels, where he explained that Colombia has absorbed 1.3 million of Venezuelans of 4 who are estimated to have left their country because of the economic and political crisis, of which 60% has Been regularized.
This figure adds the challenge of managing the 800,000 Venezuelans who crossed Colombia last year on their way to other countries in Latin America or the swinging immigration that moves daily to thousands of people between the two countries, he said.
Muñoz participated until today in a seminar organized by the European Foreign Action Service on migration management, with special attention to the Venezuelan case, which involved a dozen Latin American countries, and tomorrow plans to meet the European Commissioner for Development and international cooperation, Neven Mimica. At a time when Colombia faces “many needs” by the process of implementing peace agreements with the former FARC guerrillas, Muñoz said that his country “seeks Resources “to adequately serve migrants. Although “Tomorrow there would be a change in Venezuela,” most of the people who have left the country would have nowhere to go because there was no “infrastructure, educational, social, health,” he said. Colombia, he said, is not seeing this only as an emergency, but as a fundamental challenge for its development in the coming years. Not only are we looking for emergency measures, but we need long-term cooperation from international donors. ” The Venezuelan immigration crisis, in its view, can jeopardize the fulfillment of the objectives of sustainable development of his country and carry “other serious security circumstances very critical”, with dimension of “regional threat”. In this situation, Muñoz made clear that Colombia “will not close the doors to Venezuelans” and added that he wants to turn this challenge “an opportunity.”
Felipe Muñoz. Efe.
He said that they are “working on some funds and resources that may be available at this time, but this will surely also have a medium-term perspective,” which can be addressed by the forthcoming EU authorities when their dome is renewed next fall. Muñoz also pointed out that international assistance remains largely stagnant at the border with Venezuela and, despite the recent announcement that it reopened the border crossings “no vehicle or humanitarian aid”. He said that Colombia continues to try to assimilate the population that arrives from Venezuela and, although currently only 33% remain in border towns and 67% is derived to other cities of the country, has been installed in Maicao, La Guajira, a “camp Transitional for the most vulnerable, especially women and children, where they are stabilized.
EFE file.
“20,000 children of Venezuelan mothers have been born in the last two and a half years,” he said, who are enrolled in the civil Registry and linked to the health system, although they cannot be given Colombian nationality. ” We’re finding the legal mechanism. I think that at the latest before the end of this month is going to make the announcement “to give guarantees on the status of these children, said Muñoz, who regretted the” systematic violation of the process of identification “by Venezuela of its citizens.
