The New Humanitarian welcomes new CEO Ebele Okobi.

Find out more
  1. Home
  2. Americas

Colombia and UN test first border camp for Venezuelans

“The local authorities asked us for help because they were overwhelmed”

Manuel Rueda/TNH
Volunteers move a tent at the new UN camp for Venezuelan migrants in Maicao, Colombia on 20 March 2019.

As midday looms in the arid Colombian city of Maicao, dozens of Venezuelans gather under a large canopy for a free meal of chicken and pasta.

The hot temperatures of this desert-like region give them little reason to stay outside, and soon after eating most are back in their tents seeking shelter from the sweltering sun.

“When I was in Venezuela, I thought tents were only for going to the beach,” says Zaimil Vega, a Venezuelan migrant who arrived in Colombia on 2 March and is pregnant. “But now they’re saving us from sleeping on the streets.”

Last month, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, and local authorities opened the first tent camp for Venezuelan migrants here in northern Colombia. It already houses 200 of the most vulnerable people — families with children, pregnant women, and the elderly — and can be expanded to accommodate more than 1,000.

Its construction comes as hyperinflation, medical shortages, food shortages, and now power outages force growing numbers of Venezuelans to leave their country in search of healthcare, work, or a better future for their families.

Read more → Millions at risk, at home and abroad

 

Some 3.4 million people have left Venezuela over the past three years, according to the UN, and 1.2 million of those have settled in Colombia – a middle-income country trying to recover from five decades of internal armed conflict. The UN estimates that another 1.9 million people will have fled Venezuela by the end of the year.

A temporary stop

The UNHCR tent village in Maicao is deemed an “integrated assistance centre” by the UN. It differs from refugee camps that the agency has built in Africa and Asia because residents are only allowed to stay for a maximum of one month.

The goal is to provide shelter and food to the most vulnerable migrants and refugees, while partner organisations help legalise their status, find them housing, or relocate them to other areas of the country, explains Marco Rotunno, UNHCR’s communications officer in Maicao.

When a camp resident leaves, his or her space is given to someone else who has recently arrived from Venezuela.

This revolving door strategy has been developed in coordination with the Colombian government, which has long been wary of building camps in which migrants and refugees can stay for months and years. Authorities in Colombia have said those sorts of camps create a culture of dependency on government handouts and hinder newcomers’ integration into society.

But as Venezuelans continue to flee, with almost 5,000 people a day leaving last year, officials in Colombia have acknowledged there’s a need to provide the most vulnerable with temporary housing.

The camp of white tents stamped with the UNHCR logos sits just 15 minutes’ drive from the Venezuelan border in Maicao, a hardscrabble town of dusty streets and market stalls selling contraband goods, where the poverty rate is twice Colombia’s average.

It’s one of several camps that Colombia plans to build in the following months in towns along its eastern border that are struggling to accommodate vulnerable Venezuelan migrants and refugees.

UNHCR’s tent village was built at the request of Maicao’s city government, which was unable to offer housing so Venezuelan migrants wouldn’t need to sleep on the streets.

A survey conducted in February by UNHCR found that 1,500 Venezuelans were sleeping on the street in the Maicao, a town of 140,000 people. The town’s population has grown by 15 percent over the past three years due to the influx of migrants.

“The local authorities asked us for help, because they were overwhelmed,” says Rotunno.

Time to make plans

In November, Colombia developed a strategy for integrating Venezuelan migrants, drawing up plans to build four camps in border areas this year.

The government said the camps will provide temporary housing to a total of 64,000 people in 2019, and cost approximately $5 million.

Brazil began to set up similar camps along its northern border with Venezuela last year, moving migrants into cities in the south of the country only after they had been granted permission to work and were guaranteed temporary accommodation in shelters run by churches and nonprofit groups.

At the UNHCR camp in Maicao, priority is being given to families with children, pregnant women, and elderly people who could develop serious health problems if they continue to live on the streets.

“In Venezuela I had a job, and a home with walls. But it’s no use staying there if you can’t afford food or basic things.”

Vega, 31, is three months pregnant and moved to the camp with her boyfriend, Manuel Canova.

The couple ran out of money on their second day in Maicao and slept on the streets for several nights before they were approached by social workers who helped them register at the UN camp.

“In Venezuela I had a job, and a home with walls,” says Vega. “But it’s no use staying there if you can’t afford food or basic things.”

Vega was managing a bakery back in Venezuela and making the national minimum wage of $6 a month. Her boyfriend helped make ends meet by selling groceries, but his business was failing due to the widespread food shortages.

The couple now share a tent with two friends from their home state of Anzoátegui and the friends’  nine-month-old daughter. To earn some money, they sell water and sweets in the streets, making $1 or $2 a day.

“In Venezuela you are always thinking how you will make it to the next day,” Canova says. “It’s hard here too, but we are hoping we can get a job and stabilise ourselves.”

The couple say they have applied for jobs in Maicao, but without success, as they still don’t have documentation that allows them to work in Colombia. They’ve been told they can stay in the camp for a month and are still uncertain what they’ll do next.

“Perhaps we’ll try our luck in a bigger city,” says Canova.

(TOP PHOTO: Volunteers move a tent at the new UN camp for Venezuelan migrants in Maicao, Colombia on 20 March 2019.)

mr/ag

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join