Displaced Venezuelans, hunger in Syria, migration of health workers… The news on Tuesday

A high-level conference seeks funds for Venezuelan refugees and migrants

Some 7.2 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years. Six million of them now live in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have worked hard assisting these groups and the communities that host them, implementing regularization and documentation initiatives so that they have access to basic services.

This work is not over and requires international solidarity, UN agencies recalled on Tuesday, urging the donor community to increase support for both Venezuelan refugees and migrants and the communities that host them.

The additional financing would complement the efforts of neighboring countries to give options and stability to these people and their hosts, the UN agencies pointed out, stressing that the world must not forget Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the face of other than humanitarian crises.

With the purpose of placing the cause of these migrants and refugees on the international agenda and seeking funds to continue the work of assistance and protection, the IOM and UNHCR will co-sponsor with the Canadian government and the European Union a high-level International Conference to take place in Brussels this week.

The lack of integration in the host countries would affect the future of Venezuelan migrants

On the eve of the Conference, IOM released a report arguing that the lack of early support for integration can cause socioeconomic disparities for Venezuelan migrants and negatively influence future generations.

The study is based on more than 10,000 interviews with Venezuelan migrants conducted in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Brazil to measure six key aspects of their integration: psychological, economic, social, linguistic, political and ability to plan a travel route.

Among the findings of the interviews, the IOM highlighted that women show lower percentages of integration than men, regardless of the time they have been in the new country, their form of income and their employment situation and level of education.

The body affirmed that early integration measures must be adapted to the needs of groups in vulnerable situations and suggested a series of policies and programs that could include, among other things, regularization, recognition of skills and qualifications, training, opportunities for income generation and programs that address mental health, psychosocial well-being and social cohesion.

Half of the Syrian population suffers from hunger

WFP distributes food to families affected by the earthquake in Aleppo, Syria.

As a result of twelve years of armed conflict and the recent earthquake, today more than twelve million people – or half the population – are food insecure in Syria and 2.9 million are at risk of hunger, while the malnutrition increases and the rates of stunting and maternal malnutrition reach levels never seen before, warned the World Food Program (WFP).

That agency’s country director, Kenn Crossley, said that while Syrians are very resilient, “they can’t take much more.”

The average monthly salary in Syria covers barely a quarter of a family’s food needs and inflation continues to escalate, with food prices doubling in price in one year and costing thirteen times more than three years ago.

Crossley explained that while the WFP provides food assistance to 5.5 million people in Syria, a shortage of funds could force it to reduce that aid at a time when the population needs it most, so he requested an urgent minimum of 450 million dollars to maintain its operations throughout the year.

Migration of health workers

Health worker in Motema Pembe, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 55 countries do not have the health workers they would need to achieve the universal health coverage proposed in the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the interruptions it generated in health services gave rise to an international demand for workers in the sector, driving their migration to markets with better wages and leaving their countries of origin in a more vulnerable situation. .

The WHO detailed that of 55 countries that lack sufficient workers, 37 are in Africa, eight in the Western Pacific, six in the Eastern Mediterranean, three in Southeast Asia and one in America.

The UN agency stressed that health workers are the backbone of all health systems and called on all countries to respect safeguards and support for the health workforce, which does not prohibit international recruitment, but recommends that health worker migration agreements be government-to-government and take into account the health system benefits of the arrangement, both for countries of origin and destination.