3 million Venezuelans flee

A new United Nations estimate has found that the number of people who have fled Venezuela in the country’s economic collapse and political chaos since 2015 has reached 3 million — making it an exodus comparable to those seen in war-ravaged countries such as Syria and Afghanistan. The estimate was compiled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration. The agencies say it includes both refugees and migrants and was estimated using data from national migration authorities in the region. According to estimates from UNHCR, there were 6.3 million refugees from Syria at the end of 2017, which was the worst refugee crisis in the world, followed by 2.6 million from Afghanistan and 2.4 million from South Sudan, another country recently afflicted by war. William Spindler, a spokesman for UNHCR, said that though most Venezuelans were not fleeing the sort of armed conflict seen in Syria or Afghanistan, they could be considered refugees under the Cartagena Declaration, a non-binding agreement signed by 14 Latin American countries in 1984.