MADRID, 29 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sees with “concern” the collateral effects that the sudden adoption of new immigration policies by the United States may have on Venezuelan migrants, since it could lead thousands of people to get stuck on their way north or “turn around”.
In an interview with Europa Press, Deputy High Commissioner Gillian Triggs thanked the “generosity” that the United States has always shown on reception issues, for example by opening its doors to Syrian or Ukrainian refugees, but has also recognized that the agency is ” very concerned” about the fact that some restrictions applied during the worst moments of the COVID-19 pandemic are maintained.
The Joe Biden Administration announced in the middle of this month a plan to favor the “legal and orderly” entry of Venezuelans, under which the North American country will accept the arrival of 24,000 migrants and return to Mexico all those who try to cross the border irregularly.
It is possible that many “turn around” because “now they know they don’t have a chance” to cross the US southern border, according to Triggs, who fears that they may even be forced to cross the Darién Gap in the opposite direction, an area jungle of difficult access between Panama and Colombia. “I can’t even imagine what it must be like to go through it again,” she said.
The UNHCR official, who attended the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony in Oviedo, warned that the migration crisis in Venezuela is far from over. “In the short and medium term, these people will not return to Venezuela”, from where they fled seeking protection or simply “better economic opportunities” and basic services”, she added.
The UN estimates that there are more than 7.1 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants worldwide, of whom more than 80 percent are being hosted in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Triggs has highlighted in particular the “outstanding example” of Colombia, with measures such as the extension of the validity of Venezuelan passports for a period of up to ten years.
Migrants, Triggs has indicated, must be able to “rebuild their lives” wherever they are, for which they always need an “opportunity” and feel “welcome”.
