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Latin American nations discuss Venezuelan migrant crisis
QUITO, Sept 3, 2018 (AFP) – Ministers from a dozen Latin American nations
start a two-day meeting in Ecuador Monday on how they can cooperate to end
the massive Venezuelan migrant crisis that has jolted the region.
Officials will discuss calls for international funding for overwhelmed
public services and whether to impose tighter restrictions to curb migrant
flows in the first concerted drive to agree a common policy on the crisis.
The two-day meeting is scheduled to conclude with a joint statement on
Tuesday, the host Ecuador said.
“A regional effort will help our countries respond better to these
situations, so that we can coordinate efforts and provide humanitarian
assistance to people on the move,” Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Jose Valencia
told reporters ahead of the talks.
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have all called for more funding from developed
countries to assist their utterly overwhelmed public services.
The three countries have received the bulk of migrants flowing out of
Venezuela.
The EU announced a $35 million aid package on Friday to support Venezuelans
both at home and in host countries.
Ministers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay will be present
at the Quito meeting, Ecuadoran officials said.
Venezuela and its ally Bolivia have also been invited, but by late Sunday
had not signalled they would attend, officials here said.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans are teeming into neighboring
countries, fleeing a collapsing economy under President Nicolas Maduro, with
falling oil prices and mismanagement leading to shortages of food and
medicine.
“It is essential that each country take its share of responsibility,” said
Santiago Chavez, Ecuador’s Deputy Minister of Human Mobility.
Chavez said that would include Venezuela, which will be asked to “implement
policies” so that Venezuelan migration “can at least be adequately addressed
in the host country.”
Countries across the South America traversed by Venezuelan migrants have
vastly differing entry requirements, with some requiring no more than an ID,
while others have toughened their restrictions to try to control the flow of
migrants.
Ecuador’s ombudsman, Ernesto Pazmino, said “all governments should make
their countries more flexible in order to cushion this humanitarian crisis.”
– International pressure –
Human rights lawyer Daniela Salazar said governments needed to attack the
causes of migration, and not only look at its consequences.
“As governments feel that this is affecting them, at least that will help
them not to look the other way, and really put enough international pressure
in place to urge change in the political situation in Venezuela,” said
Salazar, a professor at Quito’s San Francisco University.
Chavez said an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of American States
(OAS) on September 5 would be the appropriate setting for a political
discussion on Venezuela.
“In Quito, we are going to focus on the issue on more pragmatic, less
political issues,” he said.
Chavez said the Quito meeting would focus on countries’ funding needs for
migrant health, education and development projects.
Salazar said he was concerned that despite the fact that an immigration
crisis had been coming “until now there is no real plan by governments to
welcome people.”
Pazmino said the exodus “exceeded all expectations and countries of the
Americas have to establish strategies, a regional contingency plan, to
alleviate this crisis caused by the wave of emigration.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1233 hrs