UNHCR speaks “increasingly” with Venezuela to facilitate the return of migrants

The head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said he is in contact with Venezuela to resolve the exodus that afflicts millions of Venezuelans who have left their country.

“We are talking more and more with Venezuela to see what should be done, because maybe some people want to return or what should be done to create conditions again, and that people can return to their country,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told the voice of america.

According to the most recent UNHCR report, published last week, more than 103 million people have had to leave their countries and transit through the world, and Venezuela is located as the second country with the most refugees (6.5 million) abroad, being surpassed only by Syria, which reaches about seven million.

For Grandi, this continues to be one of the great challenges in the region, despite the fact that he highlighted the work of countries such as Colombia, Ecuador or the Dominican Republic in this regard.

Likewise, he pointed out that Central America does not escape the migratory challenges. The High Commissioner highlighted that in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, citizens continue to be victims of the action of criminal gangs and non-state actors, which forces them to flee, in the midst, moreover, of poverty and the influence of climate change.

But, above all, he stressed, he is concerned about “the situation in Nicaragua, which unfortunately has produced a significant displacement, especially towards Costa Rica.”

Regarding the situation in Haiti, Grandi emphasized the importance of “the avalanche of movement of Haitians” who move through the region. Some, even, who are not leaving their country, but have remained in other nations for years. In this regard, he stated that the main recommendation is that “people should not be returned to Haiti at this particular time with the country’s fragility.”

The southern border of the US

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees also told the VOA that it is willing to continue discussing with the United States administration the improvement of the “huge flaws” that have affected the southern border and “how to help the US government eliminate the backlog of asylum applications of hundreds of thousands over the years, probably the largest accumulation in the world in that sense”.

Although he emphasized that the issue is complex, due to some restrictions caused by the pandemic, and reiterated his disagreement with Title 42said that the UN continues with a “quite constructive” discussion with Mexico, the United States and other countries to find solutions in this regard.

Grandi also referred to the Los Angeles Declarationannounced at the Summit of the Americas last June, in which governments “reaffirmed their willingness to deepen cooperation and align policies to reduce irregular migration.”

“The statement made by all the states in the region on population movement was very positive, which we strongly support. It must be implemented by working together to try to address these complicated flaws,” the UNHCR spokesperson said.

Millions of people in the world are assisted by the United Nations Refugee Agency, but UNHCR’s operation could be affected due to insufficient financial resources.

[Con la colaboración de Karen Sánchez, periodista de VOA, en Bogotá]

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