Good evening—good afternoon, I believe, for Ottawa. Thank you, excellencies, for inviting us to this important meeting.
I would like to start by saying that the number of Venezuelans out of the country has significantly increased in the last years. Globally, the number of Venezuelans went from 700,000 in 2015 to more than three million in 2018. Of these three million, an estimated 2.4 million have arrived in the Latin American countries.
According to official statistics, the breakdown of Venezuelans living in Latin American countries is the following. More than one million Venezuelans stay in Colombia, more than 500,000 are in Peru, and more than 200,000 are in Ecuador. Argentina and Chile received more than 100,000 each, with 85,000 staying currently in Brazil. Other countries in South America, Central America and the Carribean have received important numbers of Venezuelan migrants and refugees.
So far, Latin American countries have largely maintained a commendable open-door policy. Close to one million Venezuelans have benefited from regular stay arrangements in Latin America. With the support of IOM and UNHCR, governments are working on the regularization of these migrants and refugees.
We praise the receptor governments for their open policies and we encourage them to continue receiving Venezuelans.
The diversity of routes used by Venezuelans shows a dynamic and changing mobility. Apart from the air route, the land and maritime routes have recently become more significant. The short distances between Carribean islands such as Aruba, Curaçao, and Trinidad and Tobago facilitate the maritime mobility.
The Venezuelan nationals are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Latest trends reveal a worrying increase in the vulnerability of refugees and migrants from Venezuela, affecting children and women on the move. The recent flows are increasingly more vulnerable than the previous ones.
Most of the people who are leaving the country have a double vulnerability. On the one hand, they experience vulnerabilities related to the conditions that are faced in Venezuela—health problems, etc. On the other hand, they suffer new vulnerabilities associated with the risks and challenges that they face during their journey.
The largest group of Venezuelans—known as caminantes, as we say in Spanish, or walkers in English—walk for 15 to 20 days, crossing two or three countries from Venezuela through Ecuador and Peru to Chile and even Argentina, travelling by narrow, risky roads, changing from 320 metres to 3,000 metres of altitude, and suffering drastic changes in weather conditions from tropical to stormy and cold weather, among other factors.
They are also vulnerable to trafficking, particularly in work exploitation but also through forced prostitution. To earn more money, many of the travellers engage in begging. The caminantes groups include pregnant women, single women with children, teenagers, aging people and handicapped persons, among other vulnerable people.
Just to give you an example of the harsh conditions they face during the journey, the ones that travel between Cucuta, on the border of Colombia with Venezuela, to Rumichaca, which is on the southern border of Colombia with Ecuador, need to walk more than 1,400 kilometres. This is just the beginning of the travel for many of them.
One of the most important difficulties that the Venezuelans face during this journey is the lack of proper documentation. The Venezuelan government is not issuing new passports. Therefore, the Venezuelans must travel with ID that doesn't meet security standards. In the case of children below nine years old, they only have birth certificates.
As we used to say in IOM, migration is the determinant of health, and this situation is not an exception. This situation of a massive exodus of Venezuelans is having a clear impact on the health of the refugees and migrants.
In this regard, diseases that were considered eradicated have reappeared and are affecting not only the Venezuelans but also nationals of the receptor countries. Many cases of measles have been reported, as well as several cases of malaria, dengue and tuberculosis, among other diseases.
Venezuelans who suffer from diabetes or HIV cannot receive assistance in their country, so they need to leave Venezuela or die. Maternal mortality and gender-based violence are also affecting Venezuelans who are leaving the country. Women, children, persons living with HIV, aging people and the indigenous population require special assistance. The LGBTI communities affected by the displacement also face discrimination and difficulties accessing health services.
Also, there was a drastic loss of doctors and other health professionals, which has reduced assistance to zero in some health facilities in Venezuela. In Colombia, the National Institute of Health reported a 272% increase in important events in public health for nationals from Venezuela. Seventeen percent of the reported events are for indigenous people.
We would like to commend the receptor countries, as they are not only receiving and, in many cases, documenting the Venezuelans, but they are also providing social assistance to them. Committed officers from the ministries of health of the receptor countries are present at the border and in sectors with a presence of Venezuelans to provide services, particularly of vaccination to children. In most cases, the assistance provided is funded 100% from the financial resources from the national public budgets.
For these reasons, there is a strong need to support the sanitary authorities at national and local levels in enhancing public health surveillance in areas that are receiving Venezuelan migrants. Among the health factors that we described, there is also a need to provide psychosocial support to Venezuelan migrants and refugees who are experiencing mental health problems as a result of the traumatic experience of their displacement.
Considering the magnitude and complexity of this unprecedented crisis and to contribute to a coherent and harmonized response, the UN Secretary-General has requested that UNHCR and IOM coordinate and scale up the operational response.
For these purposes, both organizations have set up a regional inter-agency coordination platform. This platform, which my colleague José Samaniego will explain in detail, provides a great opportunity for the international community to stand together with the Venezuelan refugees and migrants, the receptor communities and the governments to provide support to deal with the most important massive exodus that Latin American countries have ever experienced.
Thank you so much.