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Through the Temporary Statute of Protection for Venezuelan Migrants, Etpv, decreed this Monday after the meeting between President Iván Duque and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, Colombia will regularize all Venezuelan citizens who entered the country on January 31, 2021.
“It is an advance that marks a milestone in Colombia’s process of welcoming and integrating the migrant population, (…) and confirms Colombia as a world benchmark in migratory processes,” reads the document in sections that it will be valid for 10 years.
The measure applies in this way to Venezuelans “who are in Colombia in an irregular situation as of January 31, 2021“and for this” they must provide summary and suitable evidence on the date of entry before the entry into force of the statute “
This strategy, conceived between the Foreign Ministry and Migration Colombia, will be administered and implemented by the immigration authority and would be carried out in two stages.
Those who want to apply to the benefit must present identity document, minors birth certificate, Express declaration of the intention to stay in Colombia temporarily and the authorization to collect biometric data.
By virtue of the statute, a Permit for Temporary Protection, PPT, will be issued in this sense by Migration, which It will be a plastic document with the corresponding security conditions.
The requirements to receive regularization are to be included in the Single Registry of Migrants; have no background, annotations or administrative or judicial processes in progress; not having immigration administrative investigations underway; not having against them expulsion, deportation or economic sanction measures in force; and have no ongoing investigations or convictions for crimes committed in Colombia.
And the benefits are: the authorization to stay in Colombia under conditions of immigration regularity special for the term of validity of the statute, to exercise during its validity any activity or legal occupation in the country, including those derived from a labor relationship or contract and to prove permanence in Colombia to accumulate the time required to apply for a Resident Visa.
One million seven hundred twenty-nine thousand five hundred thirty-seven Venezuelan citizens They would be in Colombia by December 31, 2020, according to the general director of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa Palacios.
The figure, which is 2.35% lower than that registered in 2019, gives an account of what has been the behavior of Venezuelan migration during the current health emergency.
According to Migración Colombia from October 22 to date more than 18 thousand Venezuelan migrants have been located on roads of the national territory, who arrived in Colombia fleeing the current situation in Venezuela.
Now, regarding the distribution of the more than 1,729,000 Venezuelan migrants who were in Colombia on that date, the Director General of Migration Colombia pointed out that they are located mainly in the cities of Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cúcuta, Medellín and Cali.
He also stated that of that figure, 1,729,537, 44%, equivalent to a little more than 762 thousand Venezuelans, They are in regular condition, while the remaining 56%, more than 966 thousand, would be in irregular condition.
Regarding the number of Venezuelan children and adolescents living in Colombia, the head of the Colombian immigration authority indicated that by December 31, 2020 there were more than 404 thousand minors. Of these, more than 203 thousand are women and about 201 thousand are men.
Figures from the Administrative Department of Security and Statistics (Dane) in Barranquilla indicate that this group represents between 11% and 12% of the population that was recently surveyed.
The figures show that 145,805 migrants reside in the capital of the Atlantic, which arrived in the country in the last five years. The cities with the most migrants are Bogotá, Cúcuta, Barranquilla, Medellín and Cali.
According to projections from international agencies such as UNHCR and IOM, if the crisis in Venezuela continues, there will possibly be 6.2 million Venezuelans who will have left the country by the end of 2021.
It is worth remembering that Venezuela closed 2020 with inflation above 3,700%. The minimum wage, which does not exceed 10 dollars, is not enough to cover even 1% of the family basket of Venezuelans and the levels of poverty in this country exceed 90%.
In health, according to Human Rights Watch, existing data indicate a complex picture of disease outbreaks such as measles and diphtheria, a drastic increase in cases of malaria and tuberculosis, and the almost total lack of antiretroviral treatment for people with HIV.
In Venezuela, maternal mortality increased by 65%, while infant mortality increased by 30% in just one year. 80% of Venezuelan households are in a situation of food insecurity and Venezuelans have lost an average of 11 kilos of weight.
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