Thank you so much, distinguished member of the subcommittee, for your words and your question.
I had the opportunity, before being in this role, to work at the Organization of American States for five years to address the Venezuelan migration and refugee crisis. I had the opportunity to visit more than 11 countries across the region, including Canada. That was between 2018 and 2023.
As of the moment of this hearing, there are eight million Venezuelan migrants and refugees, as I said earlier. It's the largest migration crisis in the world, surpassing that of Ukraine, which has been facing a brutal invasion since 2022, and surpassing that of Syria, which has been in a civil conflict for more than a decade. Three million of those eight million are in Colombia, 1.2 million are in the U.S., 1.5 million are in Peru, and approximately 500,000 are in Brazil, Chile and Ecuador—there are 500,000 Venezuelans in each of those countries.
However, it goes beyond that. There are 220,000 Venezuelans in Argentina, 150,000 in Mexico, 120,000 in Panama, more than 120,000 in the Dominican Republic, and approximately 50,000 in Trinidad and Tobago—that is already about 4% of the population. Also, approximately 30,000 Venezuelans are in the ABC islands—Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.
One of my main concerns is that if Maduro prevails by force, more people are going to flee. Some organizations are predicting that this migration outflow could jump from eight million to 10 million by 2025. Last year was the year when the most Venezuelans crossed the Darién Gap—350,000. By the way, some of them entered Canada after crossing into the United States.
It is important to understand that the only solution to stop Venezuelans from fleeing their own country is to restore democracy and freedom in Venezuela. People are not fleeing for any other reason. The only reason people are fleeing the country is that they're facing a brutal dictatorship. People are fleeing because of human rights violations, lack of electricity, lack of water, hyperinflation, shortages of food, shortages of medicine, and crime.
I would respectfully ask the members of this subcommittee to implement any efforts you can to protect Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and to integrate them into Canada, not deport them. When Venezuelans are deported to their own country, they face severe harassment and threats once they get there. I respectfully ask this subcommittee to promote policies to protect and integrate the Venezuelan migrants arriving in Canada.
We are not leaving our country because we want to. We have fled the country because we didn't have any other option.
Thank you.