By: Staff Writer
August 12, 2022
The International Crisis Group released a report detailing how 2.5m Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia after fleeing their home country on humanitarian grounds now face the problem of being victimised by organised crime syndicates.
The report said close to 2.5 million Venezuelans are living in Colombia, having fled their home country’s economic collapse and political crisis. While Bogotá has generously offered residency rights, many migrants and refugees nevertheless face extreme hardship and have few resources to sustain themselves.
Thriving armed and criminal groups in Colombia’s cities and countryside have absorbed Venezuelans as cheap recruits, often deploying them for high-visibility crimes while exposing them to great physical danger. Xenophobia toward Venezuelans has risen sharply, surging during periods of unrest.
The report also said: “Escaping a huge economic contraction, rising insecurity, collapsing public services and a political crackdown, over six million migrants and refugees from Venezuela have sought a new, safer life abroad over the past decade – with most leaving home since 2017. From these Venezuelans’ perspective, Colombia boasts several attractions as a destination: it shares a porous 2,200km frontier with its neighbour, making it possible albeit dangerous to cross, even when official borders are closed; its governments have been highly critical of Caracas; and it has offered residency and access to public services to the newcomers. Moreover, until the onset of COVID-19, its economy was enjoying steady growth, with thriving labour markets in its big cities.”
It added: “But in other ways Colombia is one of the least suitable Latin American countries to receive a mass migrant exodus. Over decades, various fronts of a vicious, multi-pronged internal war caused the country to suffer some of the world’s highest rates of forced displacement – and drove out millions of migrants and refugees. Colombia has had no previous experience of offering shelter and respite to so many migrants, and its lack of know-how and capacity is conspicuous.
“The country’s cash-based informal economy accounts for close to half of all jobs and is characterised by paltry, erratic pay – particularly for Venezuelans, who, for lack of formal alternatives, often accept wages considerably lower than what locals receive.
Struggling with high unemployment, bouts of social unrest and, since 2020, the effects of COVID-19, Colombia’s big cities have likewise proven inhospitable. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans ended up walking back to the border in the first months of the pandemic after the state prohibited their work as streets vendors, causing many to be evicted from cramped lodgings.
Just as armed groups in the countryside lure Venezuelan recruits with one-off payments, food and shelter, urban gangs have targeted desperate migrants, many of them sleeping rough (an estimated 16 per cent of homeless people in Colombia are now Venezuelan). Employed by gangs as part of their growing work force, migrants offer cheap labour as street fighters, drug dealers and hit men. Although working under the orders of illicit Colombian groups, the high-visibility crimes perpetrated by migrants have fuelled xenophobia toward Venezuelans. Migrants who have been exploited for their vulnerability and poverty are regularly vilified by members of the public and politicians as the cause of low wages, insecurity and public disorder.
The report also said: “In certain areas, however, the incoming government in Bogotá will have to assume primary responsibility. Where Venezuelans have found themselves embroiled in violence, they should be given the right to be registered as victims of Colombia’s conflict, which by law entitles them to reparation payments and special judicial attention. The Colombian state should also strive to iron out the difficulties Venezuelan migrants encounter in trying to join the formal economy by taking additional steps to recognise their educational qualifications and providing vocational training where necessary. Stricter law enforcement to ensure Venezuelan employees are not exploited or underpaid in their work, thereby undercutting protections for Colombians, could help relieve the labour market frictions that the migration wave has created.
“President Gustavo Petro’s goal of patching up severed ties between the Colombian and Venezuelan governments is also long overdue. Communication channels between border provinces enabled pedestrian traffic to resume through the main formal crossings in late 2021. But the incoming Colombian government has made clear it wishes to restore full diplomatic and consular relations, while Petro himself has stressed the need for the two states to work together in improving security and boosting formal trade along the border. A fragile stabilisation of Venezuela’s economy, driven in large part by use of the U.S. dollar as legal tender in the country, has raised the prospect that more migrants can go back to their home country voluntarily. Making sure there is safe passage in both directions will require far more cooperation between the two states, as well as support from international agencies.”
Colombia’s offer of a safe haven for Venezuelans is both a grand gesture of solidarity and a promise the country has been hard pressed to meet. Stronger protection upon migrants’ arrival, clear routes to the formal labour market, restored bilateral ties and a safe way to return home if desired are vital to protecting migrants from the lures and dangers of crime and exploitation, with all the ill effects that those may bring.