UN says Venezuelans fleeing to Brazil are refugees

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The massive influx of Venezuelans crossing the border into Brazil is rapidly increasing, caused by the deteriorating economic crisis in Venezuela. The situation, already considered a humanitarian crisis, has become so grave that the United Nations has now officially qualified them as refugees.

It’s not without irony that the park in which these Venezuelans are lining up for food is named after their hero of independence: Simon Bolivar.

They are in Boa Vista, Brazil, and have been officially categorized as refugees by the United Nations; totally dependent, for the time being, on local charity and the Brazilian government.

Venezuelan refugees gather to receive clothes distributed by volunteers at the Simon Bolivar square in the city of Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil, on February 25, 2018. /VCG Photo‍

“I fled Venezuela because it is impossible to eat,” said Julio Pereira, a Venezuelan refugee. “We work and we can’t eat, we can’t buy food. It is too expensive, very expensive.”

Some 40,000 Venezuelans – more than 10 percent of the city’s population according to the mayor’s office – have now settled in Boa Vista.

It’s estimated that more than 1,000 Venezuelans are living in a park alone, with literally nothing to do except wait until their work permits are processed.

At the city’s federal police headquarters, waiting lines are long. Processing documents that used to take weeks now takes months, but the UN declaration of refugee status is significant for these Venezuelans.

Bertrand Blanc, a Senior Emergency Officer at the UN Refugee Agency, said, “UNHCR is at the position that the Venezuelans entering Brazil are in need of international protection. They are refugees, and Brazil needs the support of the international community to protect all Venezuelans crossing the border.”

While no official statistics have been released, around 600 to 800 Venezuelans are entering Brazil every day, according to local authorities.

Venezuelan citizens queue as they wait to get an entry permit outside the Brazilian Federal Police Office in the border with Venezuela, in the city of Pacaraima, Roraima state, Brazil, on February 28, 2018. /VCG Photo

Maria Fernandez, a Venezuelan student and refugee said that she was in Brazil, “with faith, and I hope God will bless me so I can find a job, an honest job, so I can help my family and myself.”

Residents of Boa Vista have seen nothing like this before. Venezuelans, some of them highly-trained professionals, say they would rather dog something to earn a little money, rather than begging.

The lucky ones are those staying in one of three shelters in the city. One of them is a converted gymnasium, where conditions are crowded, but sanitation has improved and food has started to arrive thanks to the state of emergency declared by Brazilian President Michel Temer.

Despite the conditions, Venezuelans here say they are better off than in their home country and are grateful to see their children playing with full stomachs.