Mass exodus of Venezuelans is on verge of matching Europe’s migrant crisis, says UN

THE exodus of migrants from Venezuela is building towards a “crisis moment” comparable to the European refugee crisis of 2015, the UN migration agency has warned.

Thousands of people flee the coun- try every day, travelling by bus or sometimes by foot along migration routes across South America after an economic collapse that has left food and basic medicine scarce.

“There is no life for us in Venezuela,” said Boris Guevara, 22, at the bustling Venezuelan border in Cucuta, Colom- bia. “All of the young people are migrating to support our families and search for a better life, because everybody needs to eat.”

According to the UN, more than two million have fled since 2014, the year after Hugo Chavez died, handing power to President Nicolas Maduro. Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said: “This is building to a crisis moment that we’ve seen in other parts of the world, particularly in the Mediterranean.” Hyperinflation has led to people buying basic food items with piles of cash and the monthly mini- mum salary dwindling to a few dollars.

“One must work all week to buy one bag of rice,” said Arbelei Gomez, 27, who crosses into Colombia to work.

The International Monetary Fund has said annual inflation will hit one million per cent by the end of the year.

The exodus is overwhelming the re- gion, with Peru enacting passport requirements and Brazil deploying more military to its border. Colombia, which has borne the brunt, will tomorrow host migration authorities from Ecuador and Peru to develop a strategy.