Venezuela-One In 12

VENEZUELA

One in 12

Some 3 million Venezuelans, or one in 12 citizens, have fled the country to escape skyrocketing inflation, political turmoil, shortages of food and medicine, as well as violence.

Of that number, 2.3 million have left Venezuela since 2015, according to United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman William Spindler, and the exodus has accelerated over the past six months, Al Jazeera reported.

Most of them have headed to Colombia (1 million) and Peru (500,000). But Ecuador, Argentina, Chile and Brazil have all faced huge influxes.

Colombia currently sees around 3,000 refugees arrive daily. Bogota estimates caring for them will cost as much as $9 billion by 2021. That puts the much-talked-about migrant caravan of Hondurans making their way through Mexico toward the US border in perspective, said Father Francesco Bortignon, who has given shelter to Venezuelans in Colombia.

The entire caravan is “how many we get every four days,” he said. According to the World Bank, the crisis has already cost Colombia almost half a percent of its GDP in 2018, or $1.2 billion.