Towns have become refugee camps for a tide of desperate humanity
The turmoil in Venezuela is being felt all over South America as thousands continue to flee country
‘At home, a salary for 15 days would buy food for just two days. I’d go to work not having eaten for three days’
“THE situation is hard for the kids,” said Johan Rodriguez. “We have to make it, so that they can eat, so that we can eat.”
Mr Rodriguez, a builder, is one of thousands of Venezuelans who have fled to Brazil to escape the unravelling economy in their country.
He, his young daughter and his pregnant wife have been camping out on the side of the street in Boa Vista, the capital of the border state of Roraima since they fled Venezuela a month ago.
Towns across the border have become effectively refugee camps for the desperate Venezuelans, who are now sleeping in tents and hammocks in plazas and parks throughout Roraima.
The migrants spend their days looking for work and food, often with little success. Mr Rodriguez is yet to find any employment.
According to city hall officials in Boa Vista, nearly 25,000 Venezuelans are living in the city of just 300,000.
Venezuelans have fled en masse from an economic crisis and hyperinflation that has left their currency worthless and caused desperate shortages of vital supplies.
Babies have died of malnutrition, the average Venezuelan has lost dozens of pounds of body weight as a result of lack of food and those with chronic conditions don’t have access to life-saving medications.
According to the UN, more than 2.3million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014, in what the organisation’s migration agency says is approaching a “crisis situation.”
Most, such as a homeless woman who didn’t want to be identified on the streets of Boa Vista, say they just want work and food.
“[At home] we can work, but a salary of 15 days would pay for one or two days’ food,” said the woman, who used to work as a theatre assistant in Venezuela. “There I’d go to work without having eaten for three days.”
Authorities in border towns like Boa Vista and Cucuta, Colombia, where unemployment is already high among locals, say they can’t handle the influx alone.
In Cucuta, the hospital is overwhelmed with Venezuelans, many of them pregnant, who crossed the border looking for medical treatment.
The United States has promised $9million and a hospital ship to attend to the migrants there.
“We can’t absorb this entire migration wave here in the local economy,” said Vanessa Epifânio, who oversees a shelter in Roraima.
“Unfortunately, in this moment, the job market is very small.”
The migrants’ arrival in countries
across Latin America has sparked tensions, with some saying they’re bringing crime and disease with them.
In January in Cucuta, authorities rounded up and deported hundreds of Venezuelans who had set up camp in a sports field after locals claimed they were selling drugs and limiting access to the area.
Countries such as Peru and Ecuador, where Venezuelans also continue to arrive via Colombia, have already taken measures to limit the influx.
Last week, the governments in Lima and Quito announced that Venezuelans who wish to enter their countries must have a valid passport, even though an Ecuadorean judge later overturned the measure. Previously they could enter with just a card.
Top immigration officials from Peru, Colombia and Brazil met in the Colombian capital Bogotá on Tuesday to discuss how to cope with the influx.
But for now, Venezuelans will continue to head for the exits, many walking when they can’t find transportation.
“There are times when I almost give up, when I feel like returning, but I’m here for my daughter. Let’s go for it,” said Rafael Godoy, a Venezuelan refugee who recently arrived in Brazil.
Godoy is one of the lucky ones, as he has been able to find small jobs, and after spending six weeks on the streets, a local family took him in. He’s sent most of his wages back to his family in Venezuela. “With God’s grace, if I get the opportunity I’ll go wherever I can go,” he said, hopefully.