Thank you very much.
Refugees and migrants keep pouring out of Venezuela. In about five years more than five million Venezuelans were driven out of their country by an unprecedented political, social and economic collapse. The vast majority of those who were uprooted now reside in South American host countries. However, they find themselves embroiled in a daily struggle for basic human dignity, shelter, food for their children or health services for the sick. It is the largest exodus in recent memory in South America and it has not stopped.
Colombia, which shares a 2,000 kilometre long porous border, bears the brunt of the burden. Today Colombia holds 1.8 million Venezuelans. Like other countries in the region, Colombia has demonstrated incredible generosity, though it begins to wear thin. The pandemic has hit Colombia hard. It is among the 10 worst affected countries globally. Its aggressive measures to curb the spread has left a severe economic dent. Millions of Colombians lost their jobs and 15% of the population had to cut down the number of meals to one a day. Red cloths were dangling from the windows across the country as a desperate plea for help.
The pandemic not only worsened this humanitarian need; it created a whole new dynamic. Venezuelans across the region had been working mainly in informal and unregulated work. Strict quarantine measures imposed in late March had cut hundreds of thousands off their income sources. The ripple effect rocked the region. Suddenly, thousands found themselves without a roof as they could no longer pay their rent. In Bogota, informal camps sprang up. A trek began as thousands ventured back to Venezuela from across the region. Some walked all the way from Chile. By September, more than a 100,000 Venezuelans had returned.
As many restrictions in Colombia were lifted in September, the tide turned again. Thousands crossed the border again on a daily basis. Nowadays though, they only have trochos to get to the other side, exposing them to narco-traffickers, guerrilleros, paramilitaries or criminal gangs. The tragedy of disappearances in the border region is a symptom of an unacknowledged and unattended crisis causing displacement, confinement and a mounting wave of threats and assassinations of civil society leaders. We're talking about a resurfacing armed conflict raging wherever illegal economies thrive in Colombia.
CARE works along the so-called routes of the caminantes. These are Venezuelans working along the main arteries of Colombia seeking to get to urban centres or neighbouring countries. Due to the impact of the pandemic, they now find a reduced support infrastructure as many had struggled to meet sanitary standards. We find compared to an average population caminantes have a much larger percentage of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. Almost all of them are considered by CARE and our local partners, doctors and nurses at high-risk of experiencing complications.
As the health system in Venezuela has been crippled, antenatal or postnatal care has never been provided to these women or adolescent girls. Maternal death has been much higher in the border region than in the rest of Colombia. This is due to the added burden of refugees and migrants, but also due to the lack of access. This means that being undocumented is the major factor here influencing vulnerability. More than half have no legal status and are thus excluded from the labour market or health services. This really drives rates of sexual exploitation and survival sex that we found to be rampant in the border region. Survivors of sexual abuse and violence are frequently attended to by our teams.
Turning to our main recommendations, first, the international community needs to recognize that the Venezuela refugee migration crisis is in full swing, and that it is coming up now against host populations in South America that are already suffering from the pandemic. These people are afraid and are increasingly unwilling or unable to host another wave of migrants.
Second, the international community needs to acknowledge and address the ways that migration is changing dynamics in areas affected by internal conflict along the border with Venezuela and Ecuador.
Finally, women and girls require gender sensitive humanitarian attention that supports and enables them to identify and address the protection needs brought about by displacement, conflict and the pandemic.
Thank you very much.