WASHINGTON, April 13, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Colombia will receive a $31.5
million grant to help deal with the flood of refugees from neighboring
Venezuela, the World Bank announced Friday.
Colombia has received about a third of 3.7 million refugees who have fled
the worsening crisis in Venezuela in recent years — the most dramatic and
fastest exodus in the world after war-torn Syria, according to the United
Nations.
This influx of migrants and refugees to has put a severe strain on
Colombia’s economy and social services such as health care. The World Bank
estimates the annual cost of hosting the migrants, not including
infrastructure and facilities, at around 0.4 percent of GDP.
The grant comes from a multinational donor program known as Global
Concessional Financing Facility.
The resources “will help finance the significant fiscal effort Colombia is
making to host and help the Venezuelan migrants in the best way possible,”
Colombia’s Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla said in a statement.
The grant will support policies and programs aimed at improving the lives
of refugees and the communities hosting them throughout the country, the
World Bank said.
In addition to the grant, the World Bank is working on a $750 million
financing package for Colombia to address a series of issues, including
competitiveness of the economy and migration.
The GCFF was launched in 2016 by the World Bank, the United Nations and
the Islamic Development Bank to provide concessional funding to middle-income
countries hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees, such as Jordan and
Lebanon.
The funding mobilized for Colombia through the GCFF includes contributions
from Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.