COLOMBIA
A Shining Example
Colombia plans to give protected status to almost one million undocumented Venezuelan migrants living in the country, bucking the trend by other nations to expel or marginalize the refugees, the BBC reported Tuesday.
Colombian President Ivan Duque said the status will last for 10 years and will allow Venezuelan migrants to create a ‘normal’ life in the country: It allows them to work and access health care services.
The move was praised by United Nations officials as “historic,” and Duque added that the decision will encourage “other countries (to) follow our example.”
The announcement comes days after Columbia’s conservative government reversed a policy that excluded undocumented Venezuelan migrants from its upcoming coronavirus vaccination campaign.
Millions of people have fled Venezuela in recent years to escape the poverty and political instability that has led to shortages of essentials such as food, medicine and fuel. About 1.7 million Venezuelans are thought to have arrived in Colombia but more than half exist without legal status.
The UN has warned that the coronavirus pandemic has worsened the situation for Venezuelans living around Latin America and left them vulnerable to dangerous exploitation by traffickers.
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