Every night the fear of thousands of Venezuelan refugees in Colombia, to be out of their accommodation and apartments sold. Because you have no more money to pay your rent. Their low-wage jobs have disappeared, together with the informal sector of the economy – a victim of the preventive Isolation, the President Ivan Duque, two weeks ago, prescribed to 26. April extended.
Many of you who have been living on the street, have decided to run more than a thousand miles to the Venezuelan border, although this is closed. The Corona-crisis forces you now in Colombia, to a life in abject poverty or a difficult way back into the crisis-ridden Venezuela.
pregnant, on the way back to Venezuela
The 17-year-old Yuri Mendoza has made its decision. She is five months pregnant and running for two weeks from Cali, the third largest city in Colombia, after Venezuela. They had sold at street intersections, sodas and candy, but because of the curfew police sent them home.
“Venezuela is my home, and if something happens to me, then it will be there,” says Yuri. Therefore, they decided to make the long walk over the mountains to compete, as a year earlier, only this time in the reverse direction.
Many of the refugees choose to return to Venezuela, even though the economy is suffering under the worst crisis in the history of the continent. The shortage will intensify with the nosedive in the price of Oil is likely to continue. Add to this the collapse of the health system, which is far from the Corona-crisis.
Dangerous border crossing
Exactly for these reasons, the 32-year-old Juan Carlos Atacho wants to return under any circumstances. He lives for a year in a poor neighborhood of Bogotá. A return to Venezuela would be for him only the very last Option, he says. The curfew will have it but no choice. Juan Carlos, the need to pay the rent for his accommodation in a matter of days, has previously worked as an assistant in a hair salon. There, he earned seven dollars a day. Since the curfew, the Store is closed. So he, his wife and three children have lost at the age of two, seven and nine years, their only source of income.
Because the border was closed after Venezuela, is afraid of Juan Carlos, to the illegal cross-border paths which are controlled by gangs of Smugglers and drug dealers. “This dangerous path I don’t want to go with my children again,” he says.
negotiations on humanitarian corridor
Because of the illegal crossing of the border is risky, and because nevertheless, more and more Venezuelans are trying to return to their homes, negotiated the Colombian migration authorities with the Venezuelan administration about the possibility to open a humanitarian corridor.
“This is a difficult topic, because we do not want the Venezuelans or anyone who is on the road, while the country is under quarantine”, underlines Felipe Muñoz, Commissioner for Migration of the Colombian government. “Venezuela has dropped in the past few days, about 1,000 people in the door,” says Muñoz, and hopes that Venezuela’s citizens can continue to the state of their own re-enter.
The Situation of some 1.5 million Venezuelan refugees in Colombia will not improve sight. Currently, the Colombian authorities report 1579 with the COVID-19 infected people and 46 deaths. The pandemic is also gaining ground in Colombia and the collapse of the informal sector of the economy is forcing more Venezuelans to return.
author: Alexandra Correa
*The post “Corona-crisis: Venezuelan refugees return home” will be released by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
Deutsche Welle
