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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Venezuelans flooding Brazilian towns, threat of mass migration looms |
| 2017-01-03 |
| [WaPo] About 10,000 Venezuelans are streaming into Brazil every month in search of food and medicine, authorities say, camping out on the streets and swamping government services in Amazon frontier towns ill-prepared to receive them. It is an exodus by land, sea and air. Venezuela’s well-to-do can leave on planes, if they haven’t already. Rickety boats ferry small groups of migrants to Curacao, Bonaire and other Caribbean islands a short distance from Venezuela’s north coast. But those numbers are dwarfed by the tens of thousands pouring into Brazil and Colombia each month — either for emergency shopping trips or long-term stays. Venezuela’s economic meltdown and political chaos have left its neighbors fearful of a large-scale humanitarian crisis that could bring even greater numbers of needy migrants. Every month seems to bring a new low. Maduro attempted to outlaw Venezuela’s largest banknote in mid-December, a measure that he said would strike at foreign powers conspiring to sabotage his socialist government. Instead, cash dried up, retail commerce froze, and Maduro suspended the move as rioting and looting erupted. It was a reminder to the whole region that Venezuela is burning on a short fuse, and Maduro’s cash-strapped government will need a major boost in global petroleum prices to avert disaster. Maduro abruptly closed Venezuela’s border with Brazil and Colombia on multiple occasions last year, ordering the crossings reopened with just as little notice. This, too, appears to be fueling a sense of urgency among Venezuelans who opt to face precarious living conditions in neighboring countries rather than suffer the hunger and social breakdown back home. Brazilian government services are buckling under the weight of the sudden influx of Venezuelan migrants. Their arrival has overwhelmed Roraima, a poor, sparsely populated state the size of Wyoming. Venezuelans account for 60 percent of all hospital visits along the border, according to the Health Ministry in this northern state. Infections from sexually transmitted diseases are skyrocketing from the arrival of so many Venezuelan prostitutes. In December, Roraima’s governor declared a state of emergency and appealed for federal assistance to cope with the crush of border-crossers. Almost overnight, sleepy border towns such as Pacaraima have been transformed into bustling hubs of international commerce, where makeshift supermarkets pop up selling food, medicine, soap and other goods that are hard to find in Venezuela. Although some Brazilians welcome the business, many are worried that things are spiraling out of control. Although they can easily enter Brazil, Venezuelans can’t work legally unless they apply for an immigration or refugee visa. Because the visas are hard to obtain, many Venezuelans have taken informal jobs selling food, cleaning car windshields at traffic lights or unloading trucks at the border. The unregulated work has heightened tensions with locals, who say they are unable to compete with the Venezuelans’ low wages. The crisis is similar in the Colombian cities along the border with Venezuela. Colombian authorities last year registered 6 million visits by Venezuelans crossing into their country, many of them to purchase food and other goods that have become scarce back home. There are no formal immigration checks at the busy crossings, so Venezuelans can freely enter Colombia as tourists, and it is unknown how many aren’t going back. But Christian Kruger, Colombia’s top immigration official, said many Venezuelans are remaining in the country to work illegally. Colombian authorities reported 2,000 Venezuelans last year who were caught working without authorization, Kruger said. But Kruger and other officials said they remain committed to an open-border policy that facilitates commerce and offers a lifeline to families who can’t find enough to eat in Venezuela. Still, Kruger added, Colombian officials are preparing for the worst, and would be ready to cope with a collapse in Venezuela or a mass migration. The United Nations and international aid organizations would also be called on to help. “Every government institution in our country knows what it has to do,” he said, including the military, police and health authorities. “We know it isn’t something that would only affect our border region. It would be the whole country.” |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #1 Only one mention of the word 'socialism' - it's a start. |
| Posted by: Raj 2017-01-03 12:34 |