Exodus from Venezuela creating ‘crisis’

GENEVA/CARACAS: The exodus of migrants from Venezuela is building toward a ‘‘crisis moment’’ comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations migration agency said on Saturday.

Growing numbers are fleeing economic meltdown and political turmoil in Venezuela, where people scrounge for food and other necessities of daily life, threatening to overwhelm neighbouring countries. Officials from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will meet in Bogota this week to seek a solution.

In Brazil, rioters this month drove hundreds back over the border. Peru this month tightened entry rules for Venezuelans, requiring them to carry passports instead of just national ID cards, although a judge in Ecuador rolled back a similar rule enacted there.

Describing those events as early warning signs, a spokesman for the International organisation for Migration (IOM), Joel Millman, said funding and means of managing the outflow must be mobilised.

‘‘This is building to a crisis moment we’ve seen in other parts of the world, particularly in the Mediterranean,’’ he told a news briefing.

On Thursday, the IOM and UN refugee agency UNHCR called on Latin American countries to ease entry for Venezuelans, more than 1.6 million of whom have left since 2015.

Peru’s top immigration official, Eduardo Sevilla, said Peru will exempt some Venezuelans from the passport requirement, including parents with children seeking to join the rest of their family, pregnant women and the gravely ill.

But Sevilla said authorities would also be vigilant of attempts to evade the new rule by claiming refugee status.

‘‘Is UNHCR going to take responsibility if that person commits a crime?’’ Sevilla told Reuters. ‘‘Our priority is to contribute to security and internal order by clearly identifying people.’’

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said governments had made ‘‘commendable’’ efforts even though some reception capacities and services were overwhelmed.

But he said ‘‘some disturbing images’’ had emerged from the region in the past week that risked stigmatising Venezuelans who had fled and complicating efforts to integrate them.

Venezuela’s information minister, Jorge Rodriguez, said on Friday a new package of economic measures meant to address hyperinflation would win over Venezuelans who had left the country.

Last week, Venezuela cut five zeros from prices and pegged the country’s currency to an obscure statebacked cryptocurrency. Critics slammed the plan as inadequate in the face of inflation that topped 82,000% in July. — Reuters