The migration and refugee organizations of the UN, IOM and UNHCR reveal an overwhelming reality: 4.5 million Venezuelans, women, men, boys and girls, have left the country as best they could, at a rate of 5,000 people daily. Our diaspora is a tragedy.
According to UN organizations, "the Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis is the largest in the history of Latin America and one of the largest displacement crises in the world."
In his opening remarks, Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, noted that the 4.5 million Venezuelans who have been forced to leave the country by "political instability, growing insecurity and human rights violations, in addition to the collapse of the economy," could reach, according to the estimates of specialized agencies, 6.5 million migrants by 2020, or 20% of our population.
Here we have to consider that these 6.5 million migrants are fundamentally young, workers and professionals, that is to say, the impact of their departure from the country is much greater, because it is an active segment, in growth and development, it. It is the effect of a country at war, which loses its youth. It is difficult for these young people, once settled in their host countries, to return to their homeland.
There are no statistics on the number of children, who move with their migrant parents, or are left alone in the country, or are left behind. However, there are frightening stories and information about abandoned, abused, traumatized children. It's a crime.
Eighty per cent of Venezuelan migrants and refugees have moved to countries in the region, many of them on foot or irregularly. Vulnerable groups - women and children - are at great risk of exploitation and abuse.