BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Colombia said on Monday it would register hundreds of thousands of undocumented Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the country in an attempt to provide them with legal residence permits and facilitate their access to health care. legal employment opportunities.
President Ivan Duque said that with a new temporary protection status, Venezuelan migrants who are in the country illegally will be eligible for 10-year residence permits, while migrants who are currently in temporary residence will could extend the stay.
The new measure could benefit up to one million Venezuelan citizens currently living in Colombia without proper documents, as well as hundreds of thousands who need to extend temporary visas.
President Duque announced the protection measure in an imposing government palace in Bogota, while sitting with Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
“As we take this historic and momentous step for Latin America, we hope other countries will follow our example,” Duque said in a room full of ambassadors and diplomats, who were invited to attend the announcement.
Grandi said the new policy would improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor people and called it an “extraordinary gesture” of humanity, pragmatism and a commitment to human rights.
The Colombian government estimates that 1.8 million Venezuelans currently live in the country and that 55% of them do not have proper residence permits. Most have arrived since 2015 to get rid of hyperinflation, food shortages and an increasingly authoritarian government.
Duque said the registration of these undocumented immigrants and refugees would benefit Columbia’s security agencies and would also make the provision of social services, including coronavirus vaccines, more efficient.
The government has said that Venezuelans arriving legally in Colombia in the next two years will also be allowed to seek temporary protection.
The new policy comes after Donald Trump signed an executive order in the last days of his presidency that stopped the deportations of tens of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States.
Colombia’s new temporary protection status will be implemented as migrants leaving Venezuela find it harder to settle in other South American countries due to the closure of land borders and growing anti-immigrant sentiment.
In Ecuador, hundreds of Venezuelans are currently stranded along the country’s southern border, following Peru’s decision to send tanks and troops to the area to stop the illegal crossing of the border.
Other popular destinations for Venezuelan migrants include Panama and Chile, which have imposed visa requirements that make it difficult for Venezuelans to move to those countries.
According to the United Nations, there are 4.7 million Venezuelan migrants and other refugees in other Latin American countries after fleeing economic collapse and political division in their home country. Colombia is home to more than a third of them.
Duque said that while Colombia’s decision would provide relief, he did not expect it to stop the Venezuelan exodus.
“If we want to stop this crisis, countries must reflect on how to end the Venezuelan dictatorship,” he said. “We need to think about how to set up a transitional government and hold free elections.”