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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Venezuela crisis: 7.1m leave country since 2015 |
| 2022-10-18 |
| [BBC] More than seven million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2015 amid an ongoing economic and political crisis, according to new UN data. The fruits of Communism More than half of them face challenges accessing food, housing, and stable employment, the UN says. But despite the difficulties facing them abroad, the flow of Venezuelans escaping turmoil in their homeland has not let up. Aid agencies warn that these migrants risk being forgotten amid other crises. "There's no question both that it is a major protracted crisis that is shaking the region [of Latin America]," David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, told the BBC. "But it is also clear that the competing priorities for global attention - Ukraine, famine in East Africa, trauma in Afghanistan - are draining attention in a way that is quite dangerous." More than 80% of those who have left Venezuela are living in Latin America and the Caribbean, in countries which often already struggle to provide health and education to their own nationals. Venezuela's population has fallen from 30.08m in 2015 to an estimated 28.25m now based on latest UN figures. "Many of the governments in Latin America are trying to do the right thing in managing the movement of Venezuelans, but it's a big challenge," Mr Miliband said on a visit to Colombia, which is hosting 2.48m Venezuelans. While most Venezuelans have headed to Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, a growing number are embarking on an even more dangerous trek: north across the jungle expanse known as the Darién Gap to Panama and beyond. More than 3,000 migrants, most of them Venezuelans, are making the crossing each day, figures from the Colombian authorities suggest. The 97km-trek (60 miles) across swamps and mountains can take more than a week to complete and robberies and rapes are not uncommon in the lawless jungle expanse. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 English. They're on the metric system. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2022-10-18 16:21 |
| #1 7 million left but population only dropped 2 million. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2022-10-18 15:28 |