Food and housing, the two main problems Venezuelans face in Colombia

A corruption ring sold nationalities to those who did not have Colombian ancestry.

Migrants leaving Venezuela do so with the intention of finding a better quality of life, but in Colombia most of them do not achieve their goal. In the country there are more than 1 million 700 thousand Venezuelans and most of them have problems getting food, access to health and decent housing, as revealed by the Interagency Group on Mixed Migratory Flows (GIFMM), which is attached to the United Nations (UN), various NGOs and the Red Cross.

“The three main needs perceived by households continue to be food, housing, for example, help to pay the rent, and access to employment or sources of income. Medical assistance is the fourth priority ”, according to the GIFMM report entitled“ Joint Needs Assessment against COVID-19 ”, which was published this week.

The results of the study were detected through a census carried out in December last year by various UN agencies, the Red Cross and Save The Children. In total, 3,100 migrant households were surveyed, which have settled in 21 of the 32 departments of Colombia.

Regarding food safety, the 85 percent of migrants say they have difficulties getting food. At least 64 percent of households consume only two meals a day or less, discriminated in the following way:

– 58 percent hardly eat two meals a day

– 5 percent eat one meal a day

– One percent eat less than one meal a day

80 percent of Venezuelan homes are in a rental or sublease situation, and at least 68 percent of them have or have had difficulties finding a space to live. The situation is so serious that 49 percent of them stated that they do not know where they will live in 2021 and 38 percent of households are overcrowded (more than three people per room or room).

Likewise, it was evidenced that 86 percent of the surveyed population that works receives less than a minimum wage, and 56 percent is not affiliated with the health system. Migrant children between the ages of 0 and 6 are the most vulnerable, and at least 16 percent of them have never been vaccinated.

The head of mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Colombia, Ana Durán, assured that the evaluation allows to identify the progress made by the Colombian Government and also reveals the “challenges that persist to adequately and timely attend to refugees and migrants with a vocation to remain in Colombia ”.

To overcome these challenges, the investment of the national government and international organizations that address the migration crisis is important. In fact, before this report was published on December 17, 2020, GIFMM noted that Colombia will need $ 641 million to serve migrants, refugees and returnees this year.

The resources, which would come from international cooperation and private companies, will be awarded to the execution of the Regional Response Plan for Refugees and Migrants (RMRP, for its acronym in English), a strategy that seeks to respond to humanitarian, protection and integration needs. of this population.

The budget required by GIFMM seeks to complement the Government’s efforts to ensure the health, shelter, food security, water and sanitation, protection, education and integration of Venezuelans in the country. Through the plan, it is expected to serve 1.8 million people in 2021, of which 942,000 are Venezuelans with a vocation of permanence, 173,000 Colombians and binational returnees, 102,000 people in transit and 187,000 in pendular movements, as well as 395,000 of the host communities.